Eduardo Gamarra Americas Insights

The Boat Strikes Aren't Squeezing Cocaine Supply Eduardo A. Gamarra Sinking Boats, Not the Cocaine Market A year into the strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific, the market is sending a clear message: cocaine is as cheap, pure, and available as it has ever been. Washington says it is winning the war at sea. The Coast Guard seized nearly 510,000 pounds of cocaine in fiscal year 2025, the most in its history and more than three times its annual average. Since September 2025, lethal military strikes on suspected drug boats have killed more than 200 people. Officials say these operations are keeping drugs off American streets. If that were true, we would see it in the market. We do not. By every measure the government itself uses, there is little or no evidence that the strikes have reduced the supply of cocaine reaching the United States. The price test The logic of supply-side drug control is simple. If you seize or destroy enough product, it becomes scarce, and traffickers pass th...