The U.S. Coast Guard said on Jan. 2 that it has halted efforts to search for people in the water after U.S. forces attacked drug-smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean earlier this week.
The search involved international rescue coordination centers and covered more than 1,090 nautical miles under favorable visual conditions, but no survivors or debris were found, it stated.
The Coast Guard noted that its “extremely limited” resources made the operation difficult to continue.
“Suspending a search is never easy and given the exhaustive search effort, lack of positive indications and declining probability of survival, we have suspended active search efforts pending further developments,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Dill, chief of incident management, Southwest District, said in the statement.
“At this stage of the response, the likelihood of a successful outcome, based on elapsed time, environmental conditions, and available resources for a person in the water is very low.”
The Coast Guard did not specify what triggered the search efforts.
Individuals on the other two vessels jumped into the sea before follow-up strikes sank their boats, according to the U.S. military, without specifying the location of the incident.
SOUTHCOM noted that it immediately alerted the Coast Guard to conduct search and rescue efforts following the incident. It remains unclear how many people abandoned the vessels.
The U.S. military operations have heightened tensions with the Venezuelan regime, which President Donald Trump has accused of involvement in drug trafficking, an allegation Venezuelan leaders have denied.