Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels after Caribbean strikes

US President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict”, according to a Trump administration memo, following recent US strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the United States amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force – a new rationale for…