The US military bombed another drug trafficking vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people

US President Trump has once again ordered the US military to sink a "drug trafficking vessel" in international waters near the coast of Venezuela, killing six people on board. This is the latest crackdown carried out by the White House to protect Americans, but it has also raised doubts among legal scholars.

According to reports from Bloomberg and Xinhua News Agency, Trump posted on social media on Tuesday (October 14) that the ship belonged to a designated terrorist organization whose name he did not disclose. The post was accompanied by a 33-second video shot from the air, showing a ship exploding after being hit by a missile and turning into a fireball.

This is the fifth time since September that the Trump administration has announced military operations against drug trafficking ships in international waters off Venezuela. So far, it has claimed to have destroyed five drug trafficking ships and killed 27 drug dealers.

Trump said in his post that intelligence confirmed that the ship that was sunk at the time of the incident was trafficking drugs near the Venezuelan coast and was linked to an "illegal drug terrorism network". He referred to the deceased as "drug terrorists", but did not specify which drug trafficking group they belonged to.

In early October, the Trump administration submitted a memorandum to Congress, stating that the United States and drug trafficking groups identified by the US as terrorist organizations "are in a non-international armed conflict." The memorandum did not specify which drug cartels were involved, nor did it explain how individual targets would be identified as members of drug cartels. Several Democrats in the US Congress have accused the Trump administration of abusing its power by using the military to combat drug cartels and for not providing "any credible legal basis, evidence or intelligence".

Venezuelan President Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of attempting to cause regime change in Venezuela through military threats and to carry out military expansion in Latin America.