By Samuel Olusegun Precious
United States President Donald Trump has warned that America will arrest and prosecute any world leaders found to be involved in drug trafficking, as part of his administration’s new hardline approach to narcotics cartels.
President Trump issued the warning at the Shield of the Americas meeting on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Shield of the Americas is a coalition launched by Trump in March 2026, bringing together more than a dozen Latin American governments to coordinate action against drug cartels. Members include Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia and Peru. Brazil and Mexico have not joined the coalition.
Donroe Doctrine
President Trump, who has dubbed his Latin America policy the “Donroe Doctrine,” said his administration has designated drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and will treat them like ISIS.
“Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we’re doing,” Trump told the UN General Assembly.
He said the US has launched dozens of military strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since 2025, killing over 220 people suspected of trafficking drugs to the US.
Reference To Maduro Arrest
Trump pointed to the January 2026 US military operation that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is now being tried in a New York federal court on drug trafficking charges.
“In Venezuela, thanks to my Administration’s arrest and removal of former illegitimate dictator and drug trafficker Nicolas Maduro, we are already seeing the results of growing cooperation,” Trump said in a report to Congress this week.
The US has since removed Venezuela from its list of countries that have “failed demonstrably” to combat drug trafficking, citing cooperation with the interim government led by Delcy Rodriguez. The President said similar action could be taken against any head of state or government that aids cartels, adding that the US would not need a declaration of war to act.
“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country,” Trump said at the White House.
Joint Action Against Cartels
At the Shield meeting, Trump asked all member states to formally designate narco-terrorist groups including MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Mexican cartels, Colombia’s National Liberation Army and Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital as common threats, and to apply asset freezes, visa bans and criminal charges against their members and supporters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also attended the meeting, said the US is seeing “the emergence of strong leaders who are committed to the challenge of taking on transnational terrorism.
“Human rights groups have criticized the strikes as extrajudicial killings, but the Trump administration says they are necessary to “reassert American power” and stop drugs from entering the United States.
