Tag: Drug Cartels

We Finally Broke “De Los Soles’ Cartel

For months Donny and  his pack of rabid d’bags have been selling the idea that drugs coming from Venezuela were controlled by the cartel known as ‘De Los Soles’ and now we have arrested its ‘leader’.

There is a slight problem here…..

One of the central claims the Trump administration has used to justify the overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and describe his government as “illegitimate” is the allegation that he is the leader of a multinational narco-terrorist organization known as “Cartel de los Soles.”

But now that the Department of Justice (DOJ) must prove the allegation in court following the US military’s kidnapping of Maduro last week, prosecutors are backing off the claim and, in effect, admitting what critics had long protested: that Cartel de los Soles is not, in fact, an organization at all.

In the months leading up to the illegal US invasion that plucked Maduro from power, the Treasury Department and State Department both designated Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.

That allegation originated from a 2020 grand jury indictment of Maduro, drafted by the DOJ during Trump’s first term. The document described the Cartel de los Soles as a “Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials.”

As the New York Times explained back in November:

There’s a big catch with the impression created by the Trump administration’s narrative: Cartel de los Soles is not a literal organization, according to a range of specialists in Latin American criminal and narcotics issues, from think-tank analysts to former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials.

It is instead a figure of speech in Venezuela, dating back to the 1990s, for Venezuelan military officials corrupted by drug money, they say. The term, which means “Cartel of the Suns,” is a mocking invocation of the suns Venezuelan generals wear to denote their rank, like American ones wear stars.

It is for that reason that the DEA’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment, which describes major trafficking organizations in detail, has never mentioned Cartel de los Soles. Nor has the annual “World Drug Report“ by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

https://www.commondreams.org/news/doj-cartel-de-los-soles-not-real

There you go more lies from the liar in chief…..but he is not alone….this was an excuse fabricated to justify any action…..kinda like the yellow cake uranium in Iraq as a more recent lie to action.

When are we gonna stop believe bullshit to justify military action?

Who’s next on the hit list of the nazi twats in DC?

Now when can we expect a drop in drug traffic?  (Hint do not hold your breath)

****Side question–Why is Venezuela sending 50 million barrels of oil to the US?

President Trump says Venezuela is about to send a gusher of oil north—and he’ll personally control the cash flow. In a Truth Social post Tuesday evening, Trump claimed interim authorities in the country will transfer 30 million to 50 million barrels of “High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the US, to be sold at market prices, CNBC reports.

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump wrote. “I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. “

Seriously?  The money controlled by Donny?  How much of that will make into his personal accounts?

Why are they ‘transferring’ this oil?

Sounds to me like the US is taking this oil….and how will it make it’s way back to the people of Venezuela?

This smells like more Donny bullshit!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Troubling Incident

By now most of us know about that second strike on those people in the water….and now we heard from the “Horse’s’ (Ass) mouth….

The military commander responsible for ordering a missile strike on survivors of an earlier drug boat strike was defending his decision-making Thursday to lawmakers in a closed session on Thursday, and a few early developments have surfaced:

No ‘kill’ order: Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley told lawmakers that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth did not issue a “kill them all” order before the mission began, reports the AP. Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing. The first report about the controversy suggested otherwise, saying Hegseth gave a verbal order to that effect

That was contrary to all reports about the strike and the order….who is he covering for?

I find the strike on people in the water after an attack troubling….and apparently I am not alone….

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding answers after viewing video footage of the controversial Sept. 2 US military strike in the Caribbean Sea. The footage, shown during a day of congressional meetings attended by Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, revealed that two alleged drug smugglers were attempting to flip their capsized boat before they were killed in a second strike by the US, lawmakers who viewed it told the Washington Post. The attack, the first in a series of US strikes on alleged “drug boats,” resulted in the deaths of 11 people and has raised serious questions about the legality and ethics of the operation. (The 22nd such strike took place Thursday after a nearly three-week pause, the AP reports. Four people were killed, bringing the total death toll to at least 87.)

Democrats, who emerged from the meetings alarmed, have called the incident “highly questionable” and vowed to continue investigations. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut described the footage as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” noting that the survivors of the first strike were clearly in distress and posed no immediate threat when they were killed in the second strike, which was ordered by Bradley (reportedly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said to “kill them all,” though Bradley denied that during the meetings). Lawmakers say Bradley told them the two survivors did not appear to have any communications devices that would have allowed them to call for backup, CNN reports.

Republicans, on the other hand, have largely defended the operation. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas argued that the strikes were “entirely lawful and needful,” and said he would have made the same decision. Legal experts and some military personnel have questioned whether the survivors, left clinging to the wreckage, could be considered legitimate targets under US and international law, which requires protection for incapacitated individuals. The Pentagon has so far declined to release the video publicly, but pressure is mounting for greater transparency and accountability.

I would expect a douche bag like Cotton to defend such action…..

Lawmakers who saw a video of a U.S. attack on wounded and helpless people clinging to the wreckage of a supposed drug boat on September 2 described the footage as deeply disturbing.

A small number of members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate and House Armed Services committees, as well as some staff directors, saw the recording during closed-door briefings Thursday with Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the head of Special Operations Command, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“What I saw in that room is one of the most troubling scenes I’ve ever seen in my time in public service,” said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who were killed by the United States.

Until Thursday, the only video of the attack that had been seen by lawmakers was an edited clip posted to the Truth Social account of President Donald Trump on September 2 announcing the strike. The edited clip captures the initial strike, showing a four-engine speedboat erupt in an explosion. It does not show the second strike on the wreckage of the vessel and the survivors — which was first reported by The Intercept.

Himes said the unedited video clearly shows the U.S. striking helpless people.

Video of U.S. Military Killing Boat Strike Survivors Is Horrifying, Lawmakers Reveal

This is very troubling.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Is Getting Serious

We all know that Donny has a hard on for Venezuela to the point that he is threatening the country with land operations (an invasion)….he has ordered the so-called narco boats to be attacked, he has sent an armada of naval ships to the region and now he has issued a warning about the airspace….

President Trump on Saturday declared that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela is to be closed, a sign that he might soon launch an attack on the country with the aim of ousting President Nicolas Maduro.

“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

It’s unclear if the declaration means that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Venezuela, which would be an act of war. Such a step or any military strikes on Venezuela would be illegal without congressional authorization, per the US Constitution.

The order came after the president said that he may “very soon” expand the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the region to strikes on Venezuelan territory.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry later responded by calling Trump’s declaration “a hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act, incompatible with the most basic principles of International Law.” Venezuelan officials also said the announcement halted all deportation flights from the US to Venezuela, saying Trump “unilaterally suspended the Venezuelan migrant flights that were regularly and weekly being carried out.”

The Times report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been leading the campaign against Venezuela, joined Maduro and Trump in the phone call. They spoke a few days before Rubio’s State Department declared the Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn’t actually exist, a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

The US claims that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, a term first used in the early 1990s to describe Venezuelan generals with sun insignias on their uniforms who were involved in cocaine trafficking and were actually working with the CIA at the time.

Today, the Cartel of the Suns is used to describe a network of Venezuelan officials allegedly involved in the drug trade, but it doesn’t exist as a structured organization. The Trump administration appears set to use the designation as a pretext to launch an illegal war, one that Americans overwhelmingly don’t want.

(antiwar.com)

All this anti-drug rhetoric and yet he pardons a drug dealer….

The news that Trump is going to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison just last year came as a shocker. The White House has said repeatedly that drug traffickers are narcoterrorists who are waging war on America, justifying their killing the boats every time. Yet Hernandez was convicted of conspiring to import 500,000 kilos of cocaine into the United States and stuff it “right up the noses of the gringos” and Trump says “CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON.”

While president, Hernández received millions of dollars from trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and from notorious drug lords like Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo, who was the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and is responsible for the murder of some 34,000 people. In return, according to prosecutors, President Hernández allowed vast amounts of cocaine to pass through Honduras on its way to the United States.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-pardon-drug-trafficker/

Someone explain that move.

This mental breakdown is getting ridiculous….and it just keeps growing more so daily.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

An Old Threat Returns

Our bloated leader has once again threatened more attacks on a nation…..this time an old threat against Mexico.

Our clueless leaders is having a grand old time threatening everybody he can to keep the meme of drugs going.

It appears that more plans are being made…..

The Trump administration has begun developing detailed plans to send US troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target cartels in operations that would include drone strikes, NBC News reported on Monday, citing current and former US officials.

The report said that US military personnel have already begun training for the potential mission, though a deployment is not imminent. Many of the troops would come from Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and would operate under the authority of US intelligence agencies, with involvement from CIA officers.

Unlike the current US bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the waters of Latin America, which the Trump administration is conducting without legal authority, the idea of the campaign in Mexico would be to keep it secret and not publicize attacks.

The NBC report said the administration wanted to operate in coordination with the Mexican government but was also considering conducting the campaign without Mexico’s approval, which would mark a significant violation of the country’s sovereignty. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has increased law enforcement cooperation with the US and has allowed the CIA to ramp up surveillance flights along the border, but she has repeatedly ruled out US military intervention in her country.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum said in August. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”

The Mexican leader has also condemned US strikes on boats in the region, saying she “doesn’t agree” with the policy. The US recently bombed several alleged drug vessels in the Eastern Pacific, and in one case, the Mexican Navy had to rescue a survivor.

…

The NBC report signals that the potential US bombing campaign in Mexico, which would target alleged cartel targets, would have even less transparency since the idea is to do it in secret.

In response to the report, a senior administration official told NBC, “The Trump administration is committed to utilizing an all-of-government approach to address the threats cartels pose to American citizens.”

(antiwar.com)

This is getting tiresome.

After 50 years of the War of Drugs and the supply has not significantly diminished but Donny somehow has a master plan.

When will this madness end?

This macho bullshit needs to be tamped down…..there are more important issues that need immediate attention.

BTW….Mexico is also an oil producing country.

Just saying.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Venezuela–The Rest Of The Story

News broke over the weekend that Donny is sending a carrier strike force into the area around Venezuela….all this rhetoric and moving of assests and the strikes on the small boats seems to be a ramp up to some sort of direct action against Venezuela.

But is it really necessary?

Or is it just a cover for more BS that the US has spread over the years….

Here’s your answer….

U.S. intelligence has assessed that little to none of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced in Venezuela, despite recent claims from the Trump administration, a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the matter tells Drop Site.

The official noted that many of the boats targeted for strikes by the Trump administration do not even have the requisite gasoline or motor capacity to reach U.S. waters, dramatically undercutting claims by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The claim is backed up by recent comments made by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who similarly noted that zero fentanyl is produced in Venezuela.

Despite the lack of intelligence linking Venezuela with fentanyl production, the Trump administration has made alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking the casus belli in its drive to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. On Thursday, President Donald Trump referred to possible ground action, claiming at a press conference that the “sea drugs” coming in are “5% of what they were a year ago. So now they’re coming in by land.” “The land is going to be next,” he said, indicating he was willing to bypass congressional approval. On Friday, the U.S. announced it is sending an aircraft carrier to Latin America in a further escalation.

Two sources familiar with discussions at the White House note that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long time proponent of regime change in Venezuela, has been the driving force behind the aggressive military and rhetorical posture toward the Maduro regime.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/marco-rubio-secretary-state-push-venezuela-maduro-regime-change-boat-strikes

This just the typical propaganda used to justify and illegal action against a sovereign nation….

So is this a real threat to the US or just another pile of steaming manure?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Donny Is Determined (Venezuela)

The big meeting tomorrow is news but the main news for me is the declaration that US is close to bombing Venezuela.

The US military could start bombing targets inside Venezuela within a matter of weeks, according to a report from NBC News that was published on Saturday.

Sources told NBC that US military officials were drawing up options for striking alleged drug traffickers inside Venezuela, though the report said that so far, no plans have been approved by President Trump.

CNN also previously reported that the Trump administration was considering launching strikes inside Venezuela and was considering hitting targets with the goal of weakening Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The US has accused the Venezuelan president of being the leader of a cartel, meaning he could be a potential target. The Venezuelan government has strongly denied the US allegations and recently announced additional military deployments to combat drug shipments from Colombia.

Since early September, the US has bombed at least three boats in the Caribbean that it claimed were carrying drugs. According to numbers released by President Trump, 17 people have been extrajudicially executed in the operations.

US officials have told The New York Times that while combating drug trafficking was the pretext for the recent military action in the Caribbean, the ultimate goal is regime change in Venezuela. The policy is being driven by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long sought the overthrow of Maduro.

The NBC report said that some Trump administration officials were disappointed that the US military escalations in the region had not impacted Maduro’s grip on power or prompted any significant response. One official said that the White House has faced more pushback over bombing boats in the region than it expected. Recent polling shows the majority of Americans are opposed to the US military using force to carry out regime change in Venezuela.

While tensions are soaring between the US and Venezuela, they continue to cooperate on the deportation of Venezuelan citizens from the US. Ric Grenell, a special envoy for President Trump, has stated that he remains in communication with the Venezuelan government, and the NBC report said that Middle Eastern leaders have been mediating talks between the two sides.

(antiwar.com)

Just another soft target for Donny to prove his manhood.

This is a really bad idea….but what the Hell that is what the Trump group is becoming famous for imposing….bad ideas….

Just what will this accomplish?

Bragging rights?

Cessation of drugs into the US?   (Not a chance in Hell)

Just what is the thought behind this colossal bad idea?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Americans Love Drugs

Our 50 year war on drugs has been expanded by Donny in his less than genius thinking.

The war on drugs, sometimes referred to in the 21st century as the war on cartels in contexts of military intervention and counterterrorism, is a global anti-narcotics campaign led by the United States federal government, including drug prohibition and foreign assistance, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the US.  The initiative’s efforts includes policies intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs that the participating governments, through United Nations treaties, have made illegal.

The term “war on drugs” was popularized by the media after a press conference, given on June 17, 1971, during which President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one”.  Earlier that day, Nixon had presented a special message to the US Congress on “Drug Abuse Prevention and Control”, which included text about devoting more federal resources to the “prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted”; that aspect did not receive the same media attention as the term “war on drugs”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs

Let’s be honest…..yes there have been some amazing seizures and busts over those 50 years…..but the problem is all the money spent and the arrests and such and drugs are still popular…..and no matter the actions, policies, and BS the drugs keep flowing…..and Donny brilliant idea of killing drug runners is not going to change anything.

The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “America Loves Cocaine Again—Mexico’s New Drug King Cashes In.” It’s a detailed account of the return of cocaine amid a recent drop in fentanyl use by Americans. “Cocaine sold in the U.S. is cheaper and as pure as ever for retail buyers,” according to the article. The drug has seen a 154 percent increase in consumption since 2019.

For a variety of reasons, the U.S. is the most significant illicit drug market in the world, with the most drug users. Though 45 percent of Americans describe the problem of drugs in the U.S. as “extremely serious,” drug use is a growing trend. About 25 percent of Americans reported past-year use of “illicit drugs” in 2024—an increase of three percentage points since 2021—according to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Many Americans have gone from tolerance of psychoactive drug use to active participation at scale, and demand is edging up. However, public drug use and the rise in fentanyl overdoses in cities such as Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, and Baltimore have spurred public outcry. Given that the country’s annual drug overdose death rate doubled between 2015 and 2023, it makes sense that 52 percent of Americans feel the U.S. is “losing ground on the illegal drug problem,” according to a Gallup poll.

https://reason.com/2025/09/19/americans-like-drugs-killing-drug-traffickers-wont-change-that/

One minor thought of drug smuggling….

Out of 12,004 nationwide drug trafficking convictions, 78 percent (9,362) involved U.S. citizens, according to the Cato Institute. The trend remains even in regions along the Southwest border, typically seen as cartel havens, where U.S. citizens account for nearly 72 percent of drug trafficking convictions. Similarly, in the Gulf of Mexico and districts along the Caribbean, U.S. citizens account for 68 percent of convicted drug traffickers.

So you see all this chest thumping over some accused drug smuggling is nothing more that an idiot attempting to look engaged.

We Americans love our drugs….get over it!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

This Is How We Make The Case

I see that the US has hit yet another ‘drug’ boat….and the story is the same…..but just like all our other conflicts in the last 50 years there is a process for making the case for the actions the admin desires….

US/Israel rules of war: build a lie, then slaughter civilians from the air.

There’s a widespread belief that every lie contains a kernel of truth. If it was ever the case it is not any more. The belief is a potent tool in the hands of an imaginative propagandist who is capable of inventing a lie from whole cloth. Such is the nature of the lie about Venezuela being a source of drugs. It is a lie that has been invented in front of us, in real time. For while the US has been trying to destroy Venezuela for decades, it has now become even less honest about it than it used to be.

We live in an age of the whole cloth type of lie. Joe Biden talked about seeing photos of beheaded babies that he did not, in fact, see. Tony Blinken solemnly told the story of murderers eating lunch with a dead family that never existed. Eli Beer said he saw a baby in an oven that, like Biden, he did not, in fact, see. Yossi Landau reported seeing beheaded babies that he did not, in fact, see. Direct, specific, detailed, lies.

Why they told these lies is obvious enough: to justify crimes, the enemy must be dastardly and to justify genocide, only the most lurid tales are worth telling. American media has a long and sordid history of atrocity propaganda. Specific lies are told to create specific outcomes.

In the American arsenal of lies, the “Venezuela drugs” lie is perhaps most analogous to the “Hamas uses human shields” lie. For if “Venezuela drugs” is true, any kind of “war on drugs” action is justified, the same way “Hamas uses human shields” opens up all the world to any kind of genocidal act. Any human is killable as a “Hamas human shield”, and any act of theft or warfare can be justified in fighting the drugs.

The US and Israel have learned that they can act without moral or legal restraint and have found the political costs of committing genocide containable, the levels of dissent for bringing wars to new countries (Yemen, Iran, Qatar…) bearable. Harris and Emersberger have argued recently that it is very difficult to imagine a way to avoid escalating attacks on Venezuela, however unlikely they may be to lead to “regime change”.

Post-2023 propaganda is so brazen that at times it seems it isn’t even intended to be believed by its own adherents. We are not sure of the value of debunking it. But we do so in the hope that by watching how they make a story from nothing, we can learn something about how they plan to do propaganda in their new genocidal world.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-invention-of-venezuela-drugs/

Doing what we do best.

Then there is the new proposal for the AUMF which could be a disaster waiting to happen….

A draft proposal to authorize the use of U.S. military force against drug cartels is currently floating around Congress and the White House, according to a recent New York Times report. Although an official version of the proposal has yet to be released, publicly available information suggests that it could be used to justify U.S. military intervention in at least 60 countries.

The U.S.-led “War on Drugs” has escalated rapidly over the last month: after the White House signed a secret directive authorizing attacks on Latin American drug cartels, the U.S. built up its military presence in the region and began conducting a series of deadly airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling civilian boats in the international waters of the Caribbean. Human Rights Watch called the strikes “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/drug-war-aumf/

Hooray for our side.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Attack On Mexico

News came out that there are plans for the US to attack Mexico and the cartels……after Donny threatening to do so will he make good on those threats?

The Trump administration has directed the military to prepare for lethal strikes against cartel targets inside Mexico, three military sources tell us. The Top Secret planning order, issued in late Spring, directs Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to manage the attack plans, which are to be ready by mid-September.

Though U.S.-Mexico military relations are broad and cooperative, any military action south of the border is considered extremely sensitive for both Washington and the Mexican federal government and is rarely discussed in public.

“Not only is Donald Trump uniquely focused on TCOs [transnational criminal organizations, the official name for cartels], having designated them terrorists in one of his first Executive Orders, but he has shown himself to be willing to take unilateral action despite potentially negative political ramifications,” says one senior intelligence official. He and the other sources say that military action could be unilateral — that is, without the involvement or approval of the Mexican government.

The unprecedented order was discussed at a July meeting at NORTHCOM headquarters in Colorado Springs that was led by Colby Jenkins, the unconfirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. Within days, Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of NORTHCOM, hosted the two highest ranking Mexican military officials: Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, Secretary of National Defense, and Adm. Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, Secretary of the Navy.

“Today, more than ever, the challenges we face demand a joint, coordinated, and adapted response,” Morales said after the Colorado visit, trying to impress upon Pentagon and military leaders that any potential operation be conducted by the two nations together.

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/military-preparing-attacks-on-mexican

Is this a good idea?

What will happen when Mexican civilians start dying because of our military actions?

I think this is a crap idea?

How about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New Drone Strikes?

For the past decade drone strikes have been a way for the US to assert its dominance over the rest of the world by using drones to do their dirty work….Yemen, Syria, Somalia, etc….and now the Trump Administration is considering a new target….No it is not Iran (for now)….

They are considering using drones against Mexican cartels.

The Trump administration is considering launching drone strikes against cartels in Mexico in an effort to stem the flow of fentanyl and other drugs through the southern border, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The report, which cited multiple former and current US officials, said the discussions were still in the early stages, but the administration has taken steps toward taking military action against cartels, including designating them as “terrorist organizations” and stepping up CIA drone flights over Mexico.

The report said that the Trump administration would prefer to launch drone strikes against cartels in cooperation with the Mexican government but is not ruling out launching unilateral military action, which would significantly rupture US-Mexico relations.

In response to the report, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected the idea of any unilateral US action. “We reject any form of intervention or interference. That’s been very clear, Mexico coordinates and collaborates, but does not subordinate itself. There is no interference, nor will there be,” Sheinbaum said.

The Mexican leader added, “While this idea hasn’t been formally proposed, we’ve made it clear that it wouldn’t address the root of the issue. What truly works is ongoing attention to root causes, arrests driven by intelligence and investigation, coordination, and zero tolerance for impunity. We categorically reject any such actions, and we don’t believe they will happen. There is a strong, ongoing dialogue on security and many other matters.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had threatened Mexican military officials that the US could take unilateral military action in Mexico. The report said Hegseth threatened action “if Mexico didn’t deal with the collusion between the country’s government and drug cartels.”

While the Trump administration wants to reduce the flow of fentanyl, opponents of turning the drug war into a hot war have warned it’s unlikely to have that effect. Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, pointed out in a post on X that if the demand for fentanyl still exists in the US, then cartels or other criminal organizations would still be willing to manufacture the drug and smuggle it across the US border.

“If demand for the drug is still high, the cartels—or independent criminal syndicates—will have a financial incentive to continue manufacturing, even if it comes at the risk of death (these guys are already risking death by being in a cartel). There is a lot of money to be made,” DePetris said.

Military action against the cartels also comes with a risk of bringing a hot war to US territory since the organizations are known to have a presence inside the US and also possess advanced weapons that could even be fired across the US-Mexico border.

(antiwar.com)

Let’s be honest drone strikes have killed more civilians than bad guys….so is using them against Mexico a good idea?

I guess in some warped thinking it would be better for the use of drones than a once consider using the US military in an invasion type operation.

But this idea like the use of military personnel should be scrapped.

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”