Trump ‘plans to send kill teams to Mexico to take out drug lords’

Donald Trump is planning to send US assassination squads into Mexico to kill the leaders of drug cartels if he returns to the White House, according to a report.

The former president, 77, has spoken publicly of his determination to tackle America’s fentanyl crisis by “waging war” on the criminal gangs who fuel it.

But Mr Trump is yet to announce the full extent of his plans which, according to Rolling Stone, involve covertly deploying — with or without the Mexican government’s consent — special-operations units tasked with assassinating drug lords.

Three Trump allies, cited by Rolling Stones, claim the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee has privately endorsed the missions – even though he has yet to decide on specific details such as how many US troops would be sent into Mexican territory.

Rolling Stone reports conversations with his inner circle during which Mr Trump has insisted that the US military has “tougher killers than they do” and pondered why such assassinations have not been carried out before.

The magazine’s sources, which include at least one Republican lawmaker, suggest Mr Trump argued that eliminating the “kingpins” of the most powerful cartels would seriously damage their operations and ability to supply drugs to America.