UK downplays reports it has stopped sharing intelligence with US regarding narco-traffickers

Britain’s foreign secretary has downplayed reports that the UK had stopped sharing intelligence with the US that could be used by the Americans to conduct deadly attacks against alleged narco-traffickers in the Caribbean. Yvette Cooper, speaking on a ministerial trip to Naples, said “longstanding intelligence and law enforcement frameworks” that existed between the countries were continuing as the US deployed a carrier strike group to the region. She said: “As you know, we don’t comment on the detail of intelligence matters, but I think you’ll probably have seen the US secretary of state has dismissed some of the reports that have been made.” Cooper was making the first public comments by a British minister on reports from last week that the UK had halted a line of intelligence sharing amid concerns it believed the US bombing campaign was not legal under international law. Marco Rubio described the reports, first made by CNN, as “a false story, it’s a fake story”. The US secretary of state suggested the story may have been spread by somebody “with a business card that has a government email on it” and argued that the reporting was both inaccurate and misleading. Initially, however, the UK had simply chosen to neither confirm nor deny the report and it was widely covered. Because Britain has a handful of island territories in the Caribbean it has sought to monitor the movements of suspected drug traffickers, and swapped intelligence on the issue with the US under longstanding arrangements. Meanwhile, the US has stepped up its campaign against drug traffickers, who it says are linked to Venezuela and the regime of Nicolás Maduro, with the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier in the Caribbean. The US has declared that its military killed 82 people in 21 attacks since September on vessels it accuses of being engaged in narco-trafficking. Donald Trump has designated drug cartels as terrorists and his administration has said it is engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with them. However, many experts question whether the campaign is legal because drug traffickers are not attacking the US militarily or threatening it with imminent attack. Evidence to tie the bombed vessels to the drugs trade has been limited, though militaries are supposed to distinguish between civilian and military targets. Several British naval officers are understood to be onboard the Gerald R Ford and its supporting ships. They continue to carry out their duties, UK defence sources indicated, because the warships have not been engaged in attacking alleged narco-traffickers or Venezuela. John Healey, the defence secretary, who was also with Cooper, said: “Wherever our forces are deployed, whatever they are asked to do, we as a nation are consistent about our compliance with international humanitarian law.” The UK had no intention of joining the US in an attack on Venezuela, sources said. The two ministers were in Naples onboard the newest of the UK’s two aircraft carriers, the Prince of Wales. It was declared as “mission ready” for Nato deployments and last Friday its RAF F-35B aircraft flew a record 36 sorties in one day.