Mysterious bomb-dropping drones sank their fishing boats, survivors say. Who was behind the attacks?

Ecuadorian Fishermen Describe Drone Strikes That Tore Apart Their Boats in the Pacific

Earthguardiansonline.com – Two small fishing vessels operating in Ecuador’s vast Pacific waters were destroyed in separate March incidents that survivors describe as coordinated strikes by compact, four-rotor drones carrying explosives. The attacks, carried out by armed men aboard an unidentified blue ship, left multiple crew members wounded and raised questions that have now drawn attention from Washington. The full picture, pieced together from interviews with the fishermen themselves, reveals a sequence of events that blends maritime mystery with what appears to be a deliberate military operation.

The Boats and Their Crews

The two vessels struck were the La Negra Francisca Duarte II, captained by Hernán Flores with a complement of 16, and the Don Maca, which carried 20 crew members. Both boats were engaged in routine fishing voyages in Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone when the incidents unfolded. Flores, who had spent years navigating these waters, told reporters that the moment of impact still haunts him.

“We heard the explosion – boom! It was the kind of blast that left my ears ringing. Right then, I felt blood running down me.”

Despite being attacked on different dates, the two crews reported strikingly parallel experiences in the days leading up to the strikes. Each group recalled spotting an unfamiliar blue vessel and small aerial objects trailing their boats at a distance. Neither crew felt threatened at the time and continued working.

The Drones and the Strikes

The fishermen described the aircraft as roughly the size of a pillow, with rotors mounted at each of four corners and a central tube from which ordnance was believed to be released. On March 17, one such drone apparently crashed into the gas tanks of the La Negra Francisca and detonated on impact. A second drone, they said, dropped an explosive onto the vessel. Flores reported that one of the craft struck the boat directly, badly injuring the foot of his nephew, Jordyn. Crew attorney Jorge Chiriboga Dávalos shared photographs showing that the fire from one blast also scorched the upper half of another crew member’s back.

Nine days later, on March 26, the Don Maca suffered its own assault. Jaime Rubén Cervantes Macías, among the 20 aboard, recalled being thrown through the air by the first blast.

“I went flying and slammed into a diesel tank that was sitting there. People were shouting, ‘Drone, drone, drone!’ So, I jumped up quickly to take a look – and it was a drone firing at us, dropping the bomb on us.”

John Sebastián Palacios, a fellow crew member, said the concussive force of the explosions permanently impaired his hearing. Another fisherman on the Don Maca lost most of the vision in his left eye. In the second incident, the attackers reportedly delivered additional strikes to ensure the Don Maca sank before departing with the survivors.

The Blue Ship and Armed Detention

After their vessels were crippled, both crews abandoned the damaged boats, transferred to smaller auxiliary craft, and rowed toward the blue ship they had seen days earlier. Upon arrival, armed men aboard trained rifles on the approaching fishermen. Only after several crew members indicated they were wounded did the men permit boarding. Once aboard, the fishermen said they were detained and questioned.

Chiriboga Dávalos referred to the vessel as a “ghost ship,” underscoring the lack of any visible identification or official markings. The La Negra Francisca was left burning at the scene. Hours after the March 17 strike, another fishing crew happened upon the site and recorded video of the vessel engulfed in flames. That crew logged the coordinates at 1.591783, -87.741783, roughly 170 nautical miles west of the Galápagos Islands, squarely within Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite confirmed a thermal signature at that location on March 17 at 3:02 p.m., consistent with the timing of the first reported strike.

A Gray Aircraft Overhead

At some point during both incidents, the crews said they observed a separate gray aircraft circling above. Flores called it a “mini plane” with elongated wings and sketched a craft featuring a bulbous nose that tapered toward the fuselage. Public flight-tracking records, first surfaced by the New York Times and subsequently confirmed by CNN, indicated that a plane registered to a company whose listed address was a private mailbox at a United Parcel Service store in Richmond, Virginia, was patrolling the area near the boats’ final recorded positions.

The Washington Connection

The incidents have attracted growing scrutiny in the United States. The Washington Post reported this week that the strikes were executed under a covert Central Intelligence Agency program. CNN was unable to independently corroborate that claim. A CIA spokesperson told the network: “We do not have any guidance to offer on this.”

The ambiguity surrounding the operation’s origin raises pointed questions about the use of Ecuadorian maritime space for activities that may involve foreign intelligence assets. Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone stretches thousands of miles into the Pacific, and the Galápagos archipelago sits at a strategic crossroads between North and South America. Fishing fleets from Ecuador and neighboring nations operate routinely in these waters, often far from coastguard coverage. The prospect that compact rotor drones and armed personnel could appear without warning, strike civilian vessels, detain crews, and depart without leaving any official trace underscores how exposed small-boat operators remain in remote ocean zones.

For the men aboard the La Negra Francisca and the Don Maca, the aftermath has meant medical treatment for burns, shattered bones, and lost eyesight, along with the loss of livelihoods built over decades. Their accounts, gathered directly from the fishermen and their legal representative, stand as the primary record of what happened that March in the open Pacific.