President Trump has declared the U.S. is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels as the White House calls drug runners "unlawful combatants."

Washington

President Trump has declared that the United States is in an armed conflict with drug cartels, authorizing the use of military force against these groups. The White House has labeled drug runners as 'unlawful combatants,' a term previously used for Al Qaeda members, allowing the military to use lethal force under direct presidential orders. Recent operations have targeted Venezuelan ships suspected of drug trafficking, with the U.S. Navy actively involved in interdiction efforts. The Venezuelan government has reported the presence of U.S. F-35 jets off its coast, which the Pentagon confirms are part of the ongoing anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.

Trump declares U.S. in 'armed conflict' with drug cartels

We begin tonight with President Trump's declaration that the U.S. is now in an armed conflict with drug cartels. For weeks, the U.S. Navy has been targeting Venezuelan ships it says carry drugs to the United States. The White House is calling the drug runners, quote, unlawful combatants. That's a term that was once used to describe Al Qaeda members. CBS News Senior National Security Correspondent Charlie Daggett joins me from the Pentagon. So Charlie, what does this designation of unlawful combatants mean when it's at home? Yeah, so it has to do with that memo that you refer to seen by CBS News and sent to Congress where the president has made the decision that the U.S. is engaged in non-international armed conflict, very specific against designated terrorist groups, in this case, the drug cartels. And as such, he's justified to use the U.S. military to deliver lethal force under his direct orders as the commander in chief. And the suspected drug dealers they've blown out of the water in recent weeks are, as you know, unlawful combatants, not criminals, because it would be illegal to just gun down drug dealers in the street without, you know, an arrest, evidence, and a trial. But combatants can be killed on sight, even when they're not directly threatening U.S. forces or Americans, and that was argued last month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Every boatload of any form of drug that poisons the American people is an imminent threat. And at the DOD, our job is to defeat imminent threats. So he says if these designated terrorist organizations are poisoning Americans, killing Americans, they're no different from al-Qaeda, and they'll be treated as such. And Charlie, you just emailed moments ago that the Venezuelan minister of defense claimed that U.S. jets were detected off of the coast of Venezuela. What's up with that? Yeah, that essentially came from the defense minister, and we just heard about that this afternoon. Now, we knew that F-35s had been stationed in Puerto Rico. I think they got there about a week and a half ago, 10 F-35s. And yes, according to the Venezuelan government, five of these F-35s were seen off the coast of Venezuela. They have been brought in. That's no secret that they've been brought in by the United States as part of this drug interdiction operation, if you want to call it that, of what's happening down in the Caribbean. And that came out this afternoon from the defense ministry of Venezuela.

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Breakdown