Trump authorizes military force against drug cartels: report

President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to begin using military force against drug cartels that have been deemed terrorist organizations under his administration, people familiar with the matter revealed to the New York Times. 

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, told the outlet when asked about Trump authorizing military force against cartels, "President Trump’s top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations."

The sources said that US military officials have begun preparing options for how to go after the designated cartel groups. Per the outlet, the directive is "focused on US forces directly capturing or killing people involved in the drug trade."

This comes as National Guardsmen and active duty troops have been deployed to the border under the Trump administration to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants over the border. The Trump administration has labeled criminal organizations, such as Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and most recently, the Venezuelan Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, as terrorist organizations. 

On Thursday, the administration offered up a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa, and Cartel of the Suns that bring deadly drugs and violence into our country. Today, the DEA has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro, and his associates, with nearly 7 tons linked to Maduro himself, which represents a primary source of income for the deadly cartels based in Venezuela and Mexico."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview Thursday that labeling cartels as terrorist groups allows the US "to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it. We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations."

Some experts have raised questions over the legality of using military force against the cartels, with former Department of State lawyer Brian Finucane saying, "Under traditional executive branch lawyering, it would be hard to see some random drug trafficker meeting the threshold for the self-defense exception to the assassination ban." Carrying out capture operations could also raise legal issues, he said, "including about the scope of the military’s ability to hold prisoners as wartime-style detainees without congressional authorization," the Times reported.