Trump moves to target drug cartels with US military: reports

President Donald Trump is moving to target Latin American drug cartels with 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 begin using military force against cartels that were deemed terrorist organizations, while the Wall Street Journal said the president ordered the Defense Department to prepare options to do so.

The Journal said the use of special forces and the provision of intelligence support were among the options under discussion, and that any action would be coordinated with foreign partners.

The Pentagon referred questions to the White House.

White House spokeswoman 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.

Trump’s 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 president signed an executive order on January 20, his first day back in the White House, creating a process for such designations, saying the cartels “constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”

Trump vowed in March to “wage war” on Mexico’s drug cartels, which he accused of rape and murder as well as “posing a grave threat” to national security.

Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum, following the reports of potential US military action against cartels, insisted on Friday that there would be “no invasion” of her country.

Sheinbaum has made strenuous efforts to show Trump she is acting against Mexico’s cartels, whom he accuses of flooding the United States with drugs, particularly fentanyl.

“We are cooperating, we are collaborating, but there will be no invasion. That is absolutely ruled out,” she said.