Quill Lawrence

The Trump administration says it is at war with drug cartels, and it's therefore illegal for the military to carry out deadly strikes on small boats on suspicion that they're smuggling drugs.

But the first of those strikes, last September 2nd, was already controversial because it included a second round of strikes to kill survivors clinging to their capsized boat.

Killing shipwrecked enemies is a textbook violation of U.S.

military code and the laws of war.

Now, a government official not authorized to speak publicly confirms to NPR that the plane in that strike was painted not to look military, another potential war crime called perfidy.

According to that official, the plane is part of a highly classified Pentagon program predating the Trump administration.

Quill Lawrence, NPR News.

Before the raid that removed the Venezuelan president, a U.S.

military pressure campaign included boarding ships that were skirting the American blockade of that country's oil.

But one tanker, then called the Bella One, refused to halt and led the U.S.

Coast Guard on a chase thousands of miles across the Atlantic.

On the way, it renamed itself and, more importantly, re-flagged as a Russian ship.

It may have been headed to a Russian port in the Arctic when U.S.

forces boarded it.

The Department of Homeland Security also announced it seized another tanker in the Caribbean, which is being taken to an American port.

President Trump says the U.S.

is going to take billions of dollars worth of oil from Venezuela.

Quill Lawrence, NPR News.

A video posted by the U.S.

military shows a small boat under fire and then in flames.