Classified US Justice Department opinion authorizes strikes on secret list of cartels

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, Report informs via CNN.

The opinion, which was produced by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and has not been previously reported, argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans. The list of cartels goes beyond those the administration has publicly designated as terrorist organizations, the people familiar with the opinion said.

The opinion is significant, legal experts said, because it appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them summarily killed without legal review. Historically, those involved in drug trafficking were considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.

"If the OLC opinion authorizing strikes on cartels is as broad as it seems, it would mean DOJ has interpreted the president to have such extraordinary powers that he alone can decide to prosecute a war far broader than what Congress authorized after the attacks on 9/11," said Sarah Harrison, a former associate general counsel at the Defense Department who now works as a senior analyst at the Crisis Group.

"By this logic, any small, medium or big group that is trafficking drugs into the US - the administration could claim it amounts to an attack against the United States and respond with lethal force," said Harrison, who had the outlines of the legal opinion described to her by CNN.

The Defense Department's memo to lawmakers last week outlining the legal basis for a series of strikes against boats in the Caribbean - which argued that the US is in an "armed conflict" with the cartels, and said the president has determined that smugglers for the cartels are "unlawful combatants"- leaned heavily on the OLC opinion, sources said. Lawmakers have repeatedly asked DOJ and DoD for a copy of the legal opinion, including as recently as last week, but the agencies have thus far not provided it to Congress, the sources said.