Trump admin says US engaged in ‘armed conflict’ with drug smugglers after 4 boat strikes

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has informed Congress that the US engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels following recent strikes on alleged trafficking boats in the Caribbean.

The Department of War told House and Senate lawmakers that a series of airstrikes in September had targeted trafficking gangs now designated as combatants waging an “armed attack” on America via a deadly surge of drug overdoses, sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told The Post.

The so-called “1230 report” to members of Congress, named after a section in the annual defense authorization bill, “is legally mandated … following any incident in which the United States Armed Forces are involved in an attack or hostilities,” a White House official said.

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“This report was issued to Congress following the September 15 strike against a Designated Terrorist Organization,” the official added. “It does not convey any new information.”

The Pentagon notice was first reported by the New York Times Thursday.

President Trump had boasted about recent airstrikes eliminating four alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean during a speech Monday at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

“If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence,” Trump said, referencing the sinking of ships allegedly smuggling cocaine and fentanyl into the US. “That’s the only language they really understand. That’s why you don’t see any more boats on the ocean.”

At least 17 people were killed in the initial three strikes, the first of which targeted members of a Venezuelan prison gang trafficking drugs Sept. 2.

“[A]t the President’s direction, and in compliance with the law of armed conflict, on September 15, 2025, U.S. forces struck an unflagged vessel at a location beyond the territorial seas of any nation,” Wednesday’s notice said of the most recent strike.

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“The vessel was assessed by the U.S. intelligence community to be affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and, at the time, engaged in trafficking illicit drugs, which could ultimately be used to kill Americans. This strike resulted in the destruction of the vessel, the illicit narcotics, and the death of approximately 3 unlawful combatants.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who chairs the Intelligence Committee, said the president “has every right under Article II of the Constitution to take action against narcoterrorists who are waging war on the United States.”

“Murderous drug cartels are responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths and have poisoned American communities for far too long,” Cotton added. “I commend President Trump’s decisive actions against these terrorist cartels, and urge him to continue protecting our country from the drugs and violence that they bring.”

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Roughly 100,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses. In 2024, at least 70,000 fatalities were attributable to cocaine or synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’re blowing boats out of the water in the Caribbean because they’re connected to international narco-terrorist groups,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said during a Judiciary Committee hearing last month.

At the same hearing, Graham told FBI Director Kash Patel that Venezuela would be “a good candidate to be labeled as a state sponsor of terrorism under US law.”

When asked whether the administration had the legal authority to conduct airstrikes on the ships, Patel referred the question to the Pentagon.

“We will provide the intelligence necessary for anyone who meets the threshold to be a state sponsor of terror,” the FBI boss said.

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Dan Meyer, a partner at law firm Tully Rinckey specializing in national security issues, said Thursday: “Our service members have deployed to Central and South America for years in support of international law enforcement operations doing substantially the same actions. The media just hasn’t gone down there to report it.”

“Well, now the Department of War is surfacing the mission, and taking ownership,” he said. “Surprise, there is gambling in Casablanca. On to the next question, why do Americans behave in ways enabling drug lords and human traffickers? Someone has to consume the narcotics and pay for the sex for there to be a market.”

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The State Department has also designated some cartels — including Venezuela’s vicious Tren de Aragua prison gang — as foreign terrorist organizations.

In the unclassified notice sent to lawmakers, the War Department refers to the cartels trafficking drugs as “nonstate armed groups” and “unlawful combatants” that are carrying out “an armed attack against the United States.”

The notice added: “Based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations, the president determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations.”

Congress has not formally declared war on any nation since World War II, but the US has been involved in dozens of other conflicts without lawmaker approval.

“As has been the case since the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution [in 1964], Congress is perfunctory in complaining and lethargic in performing,” Meyer also said.

“Short of invoking the War Powers Act or issuing a Use of Force resolution, Congress has other options — notably with respect to funding — to ensure the president meets his domestic and international legal obligations.

“But Congress talks; Congress doesn’t walk. They have become nags.”