Anonymous whistleblowers from the United Kingdom will no longer share crucial intelligence with the United States due to President Donald Trump‘s counternarcotics operations.
In recent months, Trump has directed the U.S. military to halt drug cartel operations bound for the U.S. in the southern Caribbean Sea.
The U.K. has joined an international consensus that Trump’s decisive military action against the international drug dealers is illegal.
“It is our long-standing policy to not comment on intelligence matters,” a U.K. government spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “The U.S. is our closest ally on security and intelligence. We continue to work together to uphold global peace and security, defend freedom of navigation, and respond to emerging threats.”
A Department of War official told the Washington Examiner, “We don’t discuss intelligence matters.”
The U.K., which controls a number of intelligence assets in the region, has helped the U.S. locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the U.S. Coast Guard could interdict them, the sources told CNN.
U.K. leadership’s decision means they will no longer direct the intelligence they collect to the Joint Interagency Task Force South in South Florida, which comprises representatives from partner nations that combat the international drug trade.
The decision to stop sharing intel with the U.S., according to the sources, took place a month ago and has no definite end date.
The decision aligns the U.K. with the United Nations, whose human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the strikes violate international law and amount to “extrajudicial killing.”
Prior to the Trump administration’s decisive action, the U.S. only directed law enforcement and the Coast Guard to handle counternarcotics operations, something the British government was willing to assist with, sources said.
After the U.K.’s secret decision, Canada also said it will not assist the U.S. military‘s campaign against the cartels.
“It is important to note that Canadian Armed Forces activities under Operation Caribbean, conducted in coordination with the United States Coast Guard, are separate and distinct from the U.S. military strikes on suspected drug vessels,” a spokesperson for the Canadian military told the country’s press last month.
WHY THE LEFT WANTS TO INVOKE THE WAR POWERS ACT ON TRUMP’S CARTEL BATTLE
Despite claims that the U.S. has violated international law by striking cartels in foreign waters, Trinidad and Tobago‘s prime minister has backed the strikes and given Trump permission to pursue cartels in the country’s waters near Venezuela.
“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the U.S. naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said. “The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the U.S. military should kill them all violently.”
