Good day all. I was working on another post regarding the Mexican Drug Cartels threats against the border patrol when I saw a note that Senator Mike Lee was thinking about issuing Letters of Marque And Reprisal to private citizens.
Now I am aware of the provision in the Constitution that allows the Congress to issue a letter of Marque and Reprisal. This is Article 1. Section 8. clause 11. The text reads:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
The last time the United States authorized the issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal was the War of 1812. In 1856 an international agreement was signed in Paris by seven European nations to end the practices. Most of the countries around the world have also agreed to ban the practice. The United States did not sign the agreement although we haven’t issued a Letter of Marque since the War of 1812.
Now the reason for a Letter of Marque is to relieve pressure on governments to provide navel assets. (Warships, Marines, etc) With the costs of modern warfare, especially naval warfare, commissioning and arming a ship capable of surviving a modern navel battle would be cost prohibitive. However, you don’t always need a warship. Senator Mike Lee, (R-Utah), is proposing that Congress authorize President Trump to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to go after the Drug Cartels. Here are the details from Fox News:
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has floated the idea of the U.S. green-lighting private parties to target drug cartels for profit. The senator laid out the proposal in posts on X.
“Letters of marque and reprisal are government-issued commissions that authorize private citizens (privateers) to perform acts that would otherwise be considered piracy, like attacking enemy ships during wartime,” Lee explained. “Privateers are rewarded with a cut of the loot they ‘bring home.’”
To destroy the cartels, Congress should consider hiring a few pirates. ????
It’s in the Constitution.
Hear me out… pic.twitter.com/w146W5co4D
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) January 28, 2025
This would be a novel idea. Many American based PMC’s are made up of former American military personnel, Army, Marines and former Special Operations troops. They are highly trained and in many cases, very experienced. (Unlike the cannon fodder of the Russian Wagner Group) As long as they can buy any weapons and equipment they think they might need, I think this should be considered.
The lawmaker pointed out that the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal,” and suggested that this power could be leveraged against drug cartels.
“Congress could issue letters of marque and reprisal authorizing private security firms or specially trained civilians to intercept cartel operations, particularly those involving drug shipments or human trafficking across borders,” Lee wrote, adding, “Focus on disrupting supply lines, capturing high-value targets, or seizing assets like boats, vehicles, cash, gold, or equipment used in criminal activities.”
I think that the U.S. Government might also look into providing bounties on any contraband recovered. If they turn in a few tons of Cocaine, they might receive say 50% of the street value. The Cartels also like to “Launder” their money into legitimate businesses and well as properties and artworks.
If, say Blackwater, were to hit the home of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and clean out the safe, grab all the paintings and statues, and any jewelry, they could net 10’s of millions. If they grab a few “High Value individuals” and deliver them to the DEA or U.S. Marshals, then they could collect a bounty. (Make the bounties Dead or Alive)
They could, (And probably would), also grab all the computers, phones and electronics and potentially break into the Cartel’s bank accounts and transfer the funds into some sort of government escrow account. You could see a raid potentially netting a PMC billions of dollars in net profit after the 50-50 split with the United States Treasury.
Lee suggested that this method of contending with cartels would lower costs to American taxpayers, since privateers would be paid a portion of what they capture and bring back to the U.S.
In the video from Fox, Senator Lee said it would be a 50-50 split with little to no risk to the U.S. government.
“Dismissing the possible use of letters of marque to combat Mexican drug cartels—either on the basis of ‘international law’ or otherwise—overlooks the clear and present threat posed by those cartels to the U.S.,” he wrote. “This could prove to be an effective alternative to war.”
If the “Rules of Engagement” authorized in the Letters of Marque follow the historical model, the Privateers would very quickly break a cartel. About the only areas of concern would be innocent bystanders and the Mexican and potentially, other governments. However, that can be worked out beforehand. A PMC will try to avoid civilians, and only target people working for the Cartels. The Mexican government? Far to many of them are owned by the Cartels so they should be considered legitimate targets if they interfere.
Lee noted that in such a scenario, privateers would only profit from “non-contraband,” and that cartel drugs would be destroyed, not sold.
“One pitfall as a practical matter might be that a lot of the property belonging to these cartels isn’t … easy to monetize — because the products they sell are illegal,” he wrote.
“That could make it difficult to incentivize and reward them, as ‘prize courts’ (historically the government’s tool used for selling the seized assets and assessing how much money each privateer is able to receive) obviously wouldn’t be able to sell drugs,” Lee indicated. “But these cartels have a lot of non-contraband assets, including many things (gold, cash, etc.) that could be seized by privateers, returned to the U.S., liquidated, and used to reward the seizures.”
I think a way could be developed to handle contraband. When Senator Lee speaks of contraband, he’s referring to drugs. Perhaps some sort of bounty could be provided. I don’t know what the value of a kilogram of pure cocaine is. I’ll just pull numbers out of thin air. Say a kilo of Coke is $5000. If a merry band of Privateers should recover and turn in a couple of metric tons, they could be paid a bounty of $500/kilo.
I know several people who would be happy to apply for a Letter of Marque and Reprisal and use it to go after the Cartels. (I will NOT name names) I would also like to see that the privateers were provided with all the information and intelligence they need when they pick out a target to hit.
We would also need to set up provisions if the Eurotrash running the European Union and the International Criminal Court decide to go after the Privateers. Finally, we would need to determine what locations are open to the Privateers. Would this be global? What if a Privateer company, following the money as it were, finds it leading to some European financial houses? (They’re handling the Cartel’s money along with normal people)
These are details that need to be considered before moving forward, however we should move forward. It’s long past time to make looting and pillaging America’s enemies Great Again. Looting and pillaging the Cartels will break them in fairly short order, especially since the privateers aren’t looking to make arrests.
Thatisall
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