President Donald Trump has formally declared that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with foreign drug cartels, labelling them terrorist organisations and classifying suspected smugglers as “unlawful combatants,” according to a confidential notice sent to Congress this week.

The document, as obtained and reported by The New York Times , expands upon the administration’s legal justification for recent US military strikes in the Caribbean, which left 17 people dead, and signals Trump’s intention to invoke sweeping wartime powers against transnational criminal groups.

It describes the military campaign as a “noninternational armed conflict” — a term in international law usually applied to civil wars or conflicts with insurgent movements.

“Based upon the cumulative effect

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