In a stark escalation of its drug interdiction efforts, the administration of Republican President Donald Trump is relying heavily on the Central Intelligence Agency to select and strike suspected narcotics vessels in the Caribbean, a policy that has left at least 43 people dead and drawn sharp condemnation from legal experts and foreign governments, according to sources familiar with the operations.
The agency’s central role, which has not been previously disclosed, involves using satellites and signal intercepts to provide real-time intelligence on small, fast-moving boats.
This intelligence forms the basis for recommendations on which vessels should be targeted by missiles, typically launched from U.S. military drones.
“They are the most important part of it,” said one source familiar with the operations who was quoted in a report in the Guardian.
This process ensures the evidence used to justify the lethal strikes will almost certainly remain classified, shrouded in the agency’s imperative to protect its sources and methods.
Trump has publicly celebrated the operations, posting videos of the explosions on his social media platform and labeling the traffickers “terrorists” who threaten national security.
Yet his administration has offered no detailed legal justification for what experts call an unprecedented shift from interdicting and arresting suspects to summary execution on the high seas.
“They are throwing out these legal terms, but they’re not actually using them to make a coherent legal argument,” said Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group, who previously advised the U.S. government on the law of armed conflict. “Trump seems to be asserting a license to kill outside the law.”
The policy has ignited a firestorm abroad, with Colombian President Gustavo Petro labeling the attacks “aggression against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
At home, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has demanded answers, with Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, calling it “despicable and thoughtless to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tasked aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its escorts to U.S. Southern Command to support the Trump administration’s alleged counter-drug efforts.
“In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
“This was murder on the high seas. The United States military carried out an illegal order,” said national security reporter Spencer Ackerman on the Trump Pentagon’s first strike, which killed 11 people on a boat from Venezuela in early September.
“We do not know the name of the Navy commander—on which of the eight different warships off of Venezuela—who is actually responsible for the strike. But that officer decided to carry out an illegal order to blow up a civilian ship in international waters,” said Ackerman, who added: “Whatever rationale the Trump administration puts out for this—and they have not provided one yet—we should know that whatever rationale they come up with will not be worth the paper it is printed on.”
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration told Congress it considers those allegedly trafficking drugs “unlawful combatants.”
That term became more widely known during the “war on terror” when the US administration classified captured Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda members as “unlawful combatants,” leading to debate over their legal status and protection.
Some argue that the term sets a dangerous precedent, while others maintain that there should be no “legal vacuum” and that all individuals in enemy hands should either be prisoners of war or civilians.
Yesterday, Trump hinted that his administration may brief lawmakers on the operation, but said that he will not seek congressional authorization.
“I don’t think we’re gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war, I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re gonna to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” the president said.
Since September, U.S. military forces have unlawfully struck ten boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, killing at least 43 people.
“The Constitution doesn’t permit a president to act as the legislature and judiciary on top of being the chief executive,” said former Republican Congressman Justin Amash. “If it’s war, he must go to Congress. If it’s crime, he must go to court. When there’s no imminent danger, there’s no justification for unilateral strikes.”
To date, the majority of the strikes have been in the Caribbean Sea, but the U.S. struck two vessels, one on Oct. 21 and one on Oct. 22, in the Pacific. Five people were killed in the Pacific strikes.
United Nations rights experts have condemned the killings, stating plainly that “international law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers.” For the families of those on the targeted boats, and for a world watching this new chapter of American power unfold, the only evidence offered so far has been the grainy video of a distant fireball.
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