(TNS) President Donald Trump is declaring drug cartels to be “unlawful combatants” and informed members of Congress the United States is in an “non-international armed conflict” with them.

“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,” reads the memo from the Pentagon, which was obtained by The Associated Press and The New York Times.

The move comes after the president conducted four armed strikes in the Caribbean on vessels the administration claimed carried drugs. Seventeen alleged drug traffickers were killed in those attacks, of which at least three took place off the coast of Venezuela.

Legal experts and human rights groups questi

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