OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:58 AM – Friday, October 3, 2025
The Trump administration formally notified Congress that the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels this week, according to a New York Times report.
“The cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized, and violent,” the memo read. “They have the financial means, sophistication, and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity.”
“Although friendly foreign nations have made significant efforts to combat these organizations, suffering significant losses of life, these groups are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere in the form of organized cartels. Therefore, the President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” it added.
The designation follows President Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes on at least three drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea last month.
Last month’s attacks on the drug smuggling boats, at least two of which came from Venezuela, killed 17 individuals.
“On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,” President Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month.
The initial attack carried out on September 2nd targeted a drug boat reportedly operated by Tren de Aragua gang members, killing all 11 on board.
The Trump administration labeled the strikes as “self-defense” in nature, while asserting that it had the legal authority to kill the individuals on the boats because they were smuggling drugs for organizations the United States has designated as terrorists.
The recent notice to Congress argued a justification for last month’s strikes, stating that it 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.”
The memo also mentioned the impact the deadly drugs have on Americans, as the overdose rate climbs to roughly 100,000 per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Trump administration’s strikes on the drug boats have been controversial among Democrats, who have questioned the administration’s authority to carry out the attacks.
California Democrat Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) responded to the strikes last month, vowing to force a war powers vote, which would require Congress to formally authorize the strikes against the cartels.
Schiff stated the goal of the vote is to “put the Senate on record whether they’re going to support this kind of lawless action.”
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly assured that the administration is acting “in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”
Additionally, President Trump praised the strikes at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia in front of military leaders on Monday, stating, “If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence.”
“That’s the only language they really understand. That’s why you don’t see any more boats on the ocean,” the president added.
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