US President Donald Trump has declared that the US is at war with drug cartels, which the White House considers terrorist groups, according to a confidential memo sent by the administration to Congress.
According to The Hill, the White House chief of staff has thus provided legal basis for US military strikes on Caribbean ships last month.
The US is “in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,“ according to the memo sent to the congressional homeland security committees.
“The President has directed the Department of Defense to conduct operations against them in accordance with the laws of armed conflict,“ says the notice, which was obtained by U.S. Congressional representatives.
The notice does not mention any of the cartels now considered terrorist organizations subject to sanctions.
The notice also justifies the recent publicly disclosed U.S. military strike on a vessel - an attack on the vessel on September 15 that killed three people on board.