Washington — Months before the U.S. military began launching airstrikes on vessels suspected of carrying drugs, a former top Justice Department official reportedly advocated for a far more aggressive approach: simply “sink the boats,” according to three people who say they witnessed him make the comments.
The remarks were allegedly made by Emil Bove, former acting deputy attorney general, during a series of internal DOJ meetings held between November 2024 and February 2025. At one point, he addressed a room of over 100 prosecutors and law enforcement officials, members of an organized crime and drug enforcement task force, asserting that the government should abandon maritime prosecutions in favor of sinking the vessels outright.
Witnesses say the comments marked a shift from the traditional law-enforcement model of seizing ships, arresting suspects, and prosecuting them — to a military-style doctrine of using lethal force at sea. This approach now appears to mirror the Trump administration’s more recent strategy: since September 2025, at least 21 U.S. strikes have reportedly targeted suspected narco-trafficking vessels, resulting in more than 80 fatalities.
Legal questions are mounting. A classified Justice Department legal opinion, drafted over the summer, has been cited as the basis for justifying the use of military force against these vessels. Civil and international-law experts have expressed concern that such strikes could amount to extrajudicial killings, arguing they may violate international law.
Senate Democrats have demanded access to the classified legal memo, criticizing their exclusion from key briefings. Meanwhile, when contacted, a DOJ spokesperson dismissed the allegations as coming from “disgruntled” former officials.
Bove, who left the DOJ in early September to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, declined to comment through a court representative.