President Donald Trump is issuing a warning to avoid Venezuelan airspace as his administration is ramping up its strikes against drug trafficking organizations.

In a Nov. 29 post on social media, the president told "all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers," to keep clear of the flying areas "above and surrounding" the South American country as he contemplates land strikes.

Tensions are rising in the region as observers suspect the Trump administration may topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been designated the leader of the Cartel de los Soles, a group the State Department has deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization.

The U.S. positioned its largest aircraft carrier, two guided missile destroyers, and a special operations ship near Venezuela and around 12,000 troops are stationed in the area.

Trump has no authority over Venezuelan airspace and he did not provide further details about any action in his Truth Social post. But he signaled this week that he plans to expand on his controversial boat strikes against suspected narcotics traffickers and the Nov. 29 message could deter flights coming into and out of the foreign country.

"We’ll be starting to stop them by land also," Trump said during a call with military service members. "The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon."

Trump and his allies defend the actions as a way to combat illegal drugs, specifically fentanyl, from flowing into the country.

Even a small amount of the narcotic, such as the size of a few grains of sand, can be fatal and it is responsible for about 48,000 people dying, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

But experts have pointed out Venezuela is not a source of fentanyl and that the foreign country barely contributes to the flow of other drugs coming into the U.S., accounting for just a fraction of the cocaine which largely comes from Mexico.

That hasn't halted the Trump administration, however, from launching attacks against at least 21 boats traversing international waters, killing 83 people − many of them Venezuelans. Administration officials have said that those boats were attempting to carry narcotics to the U.S. without providing evidence to the public or Congress.

Some former military and law enforcement officials and legal analysts say the strikes are illegal and amount to extrajudicial killings. That’s also the assessment of the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who says the strikes “violate international human rights law.”

Contributing: Josh Meyer, Zac Anderson, Cybele Mayes-Osterman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Closed in its entirety.' Trump tells airlines to avoid Venezuela

Reporting by Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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