Trump Notifies Congress of ‘Armed Conflict’ With Drug Cartels

President Donald Trump declared drug cartels to be “unlawful combatants” and said that the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict,” according to an administration report sent to Congress and obtained by The Epoch Times.

The report is a notification mandated by federal law following any incident in which U.S. forces are involved in an attack or hostilities. A White House official told The Epoch Times that the report was sent to Congress following the second U.S. strike on a drug smuggling vessel and “does not convey any new information.”

The Trump administration has carried out three strikes in recent weeks on boats it said were smuggling drugs in the Caribbean, starting with a Sept. 2 strike that administration officials said killed 11 members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal group that originated in Venezuela and was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States earlier this year.