Trump declares U.S. is at war with drug cartels

President Trump has declared that the United States is at war with drug cartels, deeming them as terrorist organizations and their smugglers as “unlawful combatants” as the White House seeks to explain why its military strikes on drug boats were legally justified.

The memo was sent to several national security congressional committees. It says America “is in non-international armed conflict with designated terrorist organizations.”

“The president directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and the United States’ interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations,” states the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

Designating the drug cartels as being in “armed conflict” with the United States gives Mr. Trump wartime powers to deal with what he has repeatedly called a threat to national security.

By declaring it an armed conflict, like with al Qaeda and other Islamist groups since 2001, the U.S. can lawfully kill enemy combatants, detain them indefinitely without trials and prosecute them in military tribunals.

Democrats on several top committees have accused Mr. Trump of exceeding his authority by striking suspected drug smuggling vessels in the southern Caribbean.

Three times, the military struck boats near Venezuela that the administration said were carrying drugs. At least 31 people were killed in the strikes, and some of those boats originated from Venezuela.

The White House said those strikes were justified because the cartels are “non-state armed groups” and their actions constitute an “armed attack against the United States.”

“They illegally and directly cause the deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens each year,” the memo states. “Although friendly foreign nations have made significant efforts to combat these organizations, suffering significant losses of life, these groups are transitional and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“The cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized and violent,” the memo states. “They have the financial means, sophistication and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity.”

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the designation of the cartels as terrorist organizations was “unacceptable.”

“Every American should be alarmed that President Trump has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he labels an enemy. Drug cartels must be stopped but declaring war and ordering lethal military force without Congress or public knowledge — nor legal justification — is unacceptable,” Mr. Reed posted on X.

In the memo, the White House specifically defends a Sept. 15 strike. It says U.S. intelligence concluded the vessel was “affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and, at the time, engaged in trafficking illicit drugs which could eventually kill Americans.”

Mr. Trump has long pledged to unleash the full force of the U.S. military against drug cartels. In August, the president approved sending several Navy destroyers to the southern Caribbean to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowed that his country would respond to any attacks. The Trump administration has accused him personally of leading a violent drug cartel and supporting “narco-terrorism.” The Justice Department has placed a $50 million bounty on him.

The first military strike was carried out on Sept. 2. It destroyed a speedboat and allegedly killed 11 people.

Mr. Trump maintained the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which the U.S. deemed a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.

However, several lawmakers on both sides and human rights groups questioned the strikes. They questioned the legality of killing the people on the boats and whether the military could be used for law enforcement purposes.

Many Democrats pressed the White House to provide legal justification for the strikes. The White House repeatedly insisted that it abided by the laws of “armed conflict” to justify the strikes, but Democrats disputed the legality of their claims.

“Classifying a clear law enforcement mission as counterterrorism does not confer legal authority to target and kill civilians,” Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, wrote in a letter last month to Mr. Trump. The letter was co-signed by 24 Senate Democrats.

Sen. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, said he was drafting a war powers resolution to stop the Trump administration from using the military to conduct further strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels without the consent of Congress.

The Trump administration has insisted the strikes are self-defense because the cocaine shipments contribute to 100,000 overdose deaths annually in the United States. It also said that because the people on the boat worked for the cartels, they were designated terrorists.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States went to war against al Qaeda, also a nonstate entity scattered across multiple countries, under an authorization to use military force that Congress granted a week after the attacks.

Some legal scholars and Democrats objected, but the Supreme Court agreed that the U.S. was at war with al Qaeda and granted the Bush administration the ability to invoke its wartime powers to indefinitely detain members of the terrorist network.

The court concluded the U.S. was at war with al Qaeda because it attacked America, intentionally killing citizens, and that Congress approved the use of armed forces against it. In this case, even if drug smuggling was an intentional attack on the country, Congress has not passed any military force authorization. Mr. Trump argues that the presidential office inherently has such powers.