Trump’s next target: Drug cartels

President Donald Trump is moving to target Latin American drug cartels using the military, US media said Friday, after Washington designated several narcotics trafficking groups as “terrorist” organizations earlier this year.

The New York Times reported that Trump has directed the Pentagon to use military force against cartels deemed terrorist organizations.

The Wall Street Journal said the President ordered options to be prepared, with the use of Special Forces and the provision of intelligence support under discussion, and that any action would be coordinated with foreign partners.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly, while not confirming the reports, said in a statement that 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 United States designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and six other drug trafficking groups with Latin American roots as terror groups in February.

The US embassy in Mexico released a statement later Friday, saying that both countries would use “every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples” from drug trafficking groups.

But the Mexican foreign ministry stressed that Mexico “would not accept the participation of US military forces in our territory.”

Smokescreen

The Trump administration has since added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has allegedly shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades.

The US accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading that cartel — an allegation Caracas has rejected as a “ridiculous smokescreen.”

On Thursday, the US Justice Department doubled to $50 million its bounty on Venezuela’s Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the Cartel of the Suns.

Venezuela has dismissed the allegations, with Foreign Minister Yvan Gil calling it “the most ridiculous smokescreen we have ever seen.”

National security threat

Trump signed an executive order on 20 January 2024, his first day back in the White House, creating a process for the designation of the cartels, which he said “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Thursday interview with EWTN that the designations “allow us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups.”

“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations,” Rubio said. “It’s no longer a law enforcement issue, it has become a national security issue.”