US Said To Be Planning Anti-Drug Mission in Mexico

The Trump administration now appears set to extend its alleged anti-drug trafficking campaign to Mexico, at least according to an NBC report that appeared yesterday. According to that report, the Trump administration has begun detailed planning for a new mission to send American troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels, according to two U.S. officials and two former senior U.S. officials familiar with the effort. The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun, but a deployment to Mexico is not imminent, according to NBC’s sources. The U.S. troops, many of whom would be from Joint Special Operations Command, would operate under the authority of the U.S. intelligence community, known as Title 50 status, the two current officials said. They said officers from the CIA also would participate.