BRITAIN has halted intelligence-sharing with the US on drug trafficking in the Caribbean – risking a new diplomatic bust up with Donald Trump.
Ministers are said to have paused briefings because they do not want to be complicit in US lethal strikes on suspected drug boats in Latin America, according to CNN.
British officials reportedly feared information passed to Washington could be used to identify targets for strikes that may breach international law.
It comes after US forces began killing suspected traffickers at sea, with at least 75 people dead so far.
The UK Government is understood to agree with UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk, who said the strikes amount to extrajudicial killing.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has defended the campaign by claiming the US is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels flooding America.
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France has now joined the chorus of concern, warning that the US strikes “violate international law.”
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris was alarmed by the escalation, given its Caribbean territories and “more than a million compatriots” living there.
Barrot told reporters at the G7 foreign ministers’ summit in Canada: “They could therefore be affected by the instability caused by any escalation, which we obviously want to avoid.”
Canadian officials have also moved to distance their country from the US operation.
Ottawa said its own counter-narcotics work with the US Coast Guard “is separate and distinct” from the American military strikes, which have killed at least 76 people since September.
Legal experts and even senior Pentagon officials are questioning the campaign’s legitimacy.
CNN reported that Admiral Alvin Holsey, the commander of US Southern Command, offered to resign after raising concerns about whether the airstrikes were lawful.
Lawyers inside the Defense Department’s Office of General Counsel have also expressed doubts, though a Pentagon spokesperson denied any internal dissent.
European diplomats privately admit the rupture could widen if Washington keeps framing the anti-drug mission as an “armed conflict.”
One senior EU official told reporters the shift from policing to warfare “crosses a red line” that allies never agreed to.
Officials in London and Paris are said to be coordinating their response behind the scenes, exploring whether to raise the issue at the UN Security Council if US operations expand further.
“There’s a real concern about precedent,” a UK defence source told CNN.
“If the US can unilaterally declare war on cartels, what’s to stop others doing the same?”
Inside Nato, the move has triggered rare unease.
Diplomats say the alliance was not consulted before the strikes began, and several members are now questioning how Trump’s “narco-terrorism” doctrine fits within collective defence policy.
At the same time, Washington is showing no signs of slowing down.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered additional assets into the Caribbean, saying they will “degrade and dismantle” criminal groups threatening the homeland.
The buildup now includes the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, leading a strike group of destroyers, submarines, and F-35 jets.
It marks the biggest US deployment in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
And it’s the sharpest warning yet to Venezuelan tyrant Nicolás Maduro, who has mobilised troops and militias for what he calls “prolonged resistance.”
