WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — President Donald Trump has issued a determination ordering the shooting down of any aircraft suspected of being involved in the smuggling of illegal drugs in the airspace of the nation of Columbia, a presidential memorandum released by the White House revealed.
"I hereby certify, with respect to Colombia, that interdiction of aircraft reasonably suspected to be primarily engaged in illicit drug trafficking in that country's airspace is necessary, because of the extraordinary threat posed by illicit drug trafficking to the national security of that country," the memo said on Friday.
Colombia has appropriate procedures in place to protect against innocent loss of life in the air and on the ground in connection with such interdiction measures, the memorandum added.
Those procedures include effective means to identify and warn an aircraft before the use of force is directed against the aircraft, the presidential memorandum said.