White House grounds for strike on alleged drug boat is a murky legal issue MARIAM KHANSeptember 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM 0 President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday's attack on a vessel he says carrying suspected Tren de Aragua drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea was full of "massive" amounts of drugs and t...
- - White House grounds for strike on alleged drug boat is a murky legal issue
MARIAM KHANSeptember 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
0
President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday's attack on a vessel he says carrying suspected Tren de Aragua drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea was full of "massive" amounts of drugs and that the U.S. had "tapes" of the alleged smugglers speaking, though he and his administration have offered up few other details about how the strike was carried out, citing security concerns.
"You had massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people … You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat, and they were hit. Obviously, they won't be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won't be doing it again," Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Earlier Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared the identities of the boat passengers was an absolute -- suggesting the Pentagon knew "exactly" who was in the boat and what the passengers were planning to do.
MORE: US military strikes alleged drug boat, Trump says, '11 terrorists killed'
"We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Tren de Aragua narcoterrorist organization designated by the United States as trying to poison our country with illicit drugs," Hegseth said during an interview with Fox News.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social - PHOTO: PHOTO: President Trump announced on his social media platform that he ordered U.S. military forces to conduct "a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility."
Hegseth declined to say what type of weapons were used in the strike, saying those details were classified. The Pentagon on Wednesday declined to provide other details, including who was on the boat and whether Congress had been notified of the attack.
"Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a deadly terrorist will face the same fate," Hegseth said.
During a news conference in Mexico City during an official visit to the region, Secretary of State Marco Rubio deferred to the Department of Defense for further operational details.
"Interdiction doesn't work," Rubio said Wednesday. "What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them."
Rubio said the vessel was operating in international waters and said the administration relied on intelligence mechanisms used in similar previous operations to determine that the vessel would eventually head towards the United States.
MORE: The Coast Guard seized a record 76,000 pounds of drugs this summer
"So, the same information and the same intelligence mechanisms with maybe a higher focus was used to determine that a drug boat was headed towards, eventually, the United States, and instead of interdicting it, on the president's orders, we blew it up," Rubio said. "We're not going to sit back anymore and watch these people sail up and down the Caribbean like a cruise ship. It's not going to happen."
Despite these statements, the White House and Pentagon and State Department officials have not explained how the military determined that those aboard the vessel were Tren de Aragua members. Nor has the administration explained the legal authority used to justify the strike or whether U.S. forces attempted to communicate or even warn the passengers on the boat.
The strike killed 11 people, all of whom were "bad" actors, Trump said. The president also posted a short video clip of a small vessel appearing to explode in flames.
The rare U.S. military operation is a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's effort to stop the illegal flow of narcotics into the U.S. from Latin America.
U.S. officials have long claimed that Venezuelan cocaine shipments contribute to overdose deaths in the U.S. -- and they accuse the country's leader, Nicolas Maduro, of facilitating drug trafficking, which he denies. The Trump administration has placed a $50 million bounty on his head for his arrest.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: President Donald Trump looks on as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, August 26, 2025.Murky legal authorities
In February, the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, MS-13 and other drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) following an executive order signed by Trump in January. In August, Trump directed the Pentagon to prepare options for the possible use of U.S. military force against drug cartels that have been designated as FTOs.
Members of the Trump administration have claimed that designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives the executive branch the ability to go after criminal enterprises with the power of the U.S. military.
"It gives us legal authorities to target them in ways you can't do if they're just a bunch of criminals. It's no longer a law enforcement issue. It becomes a national security issue," Rubio said in an interview last month.
But some experts suggest the designation is legally murky. The FTO designation does not typically constitute an authorization to use deadly force and is primarily a tool to restrict financial and material support to terrorist groups.
The use of deadly force is governed by broader legal frameworks -- such as the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which is approved by Congress and used to justify deadly force against terrorist organizations. The use of an AUMF to conduct a deadly strike would also require a notification to Congress, typically within 48 hours, though it's unclear at this time if lawmakers on the relevant intelligence committees on Capitol Hill were given a heads up. ABC News has reached out to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Critics have often said the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and leading up to the invasion of Iraq grant the president powers to unilaterally wage "perpetual worldwide wars." Some lawmakers have been keen to repeal them but those efforts have all been unsuccessful.
Pedro Rances Mattey/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he delivers a speech during a rally in Caracas, on Aug. 28, 2024.Heightened tensions with Venezuela
In recent days, The U.S. deployed eight Navy warships to the Caribbean and Pacific to enhance counter-narcotics operations near Central and South American countries. The move, intended to counter drug cartels, has heightened tensions with Venezuela.
The Venezuelan envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Samuel Moncada, immediately denounced the U.S. deployment, saying the movement was a threat to regional stability and sovereignty, and emphasized that the U.S. actions violate international law and the U.N. Charter.
"It's really, really, it's an escalation, just announcing eight warships with capacity to bomb Venezuela in any part of Venezuela, and now they are saying that they are sending a nuclear submarine," Moncada said during remarks at the U.N. last week.
He accused the U.S. of using drug trafficking as a pretext for intervention and claimed Venezuela has a minimal role in the movement of drugs.
"We don't believe at all that they are there to fight drug trafficking," Moncada said. "This is a narrative which is being fabricated just for the purpose of producing and justify an intervention against a legitimate president of a Latin American country."
In a news conference Monday, Maduro denounced the U.S. military's heightened presence in the Caribbean and called the deployment of the warships "an extravagant, unjustified, immoral and absolutely criminal" threat against Venezuela.
ABC News' Anne Flaherty and Shannon Kingston contributed to this report
Source: "AOL AOL General News"
Source: CR MAG
Full Article on Source: CR MAG
#ShowBiz #Sports #Celebrities #Lifestyle