(MENAFN) The United Kingdom has stopped providing intelligence on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean to the United States after the Pentagon began carrying out lethal strikes on the boats, according to reports.

Since September, the US has killed at least 76 people in international waters as part of former President Donald Trump’s campaign against what he describes as “narcoterrorists” operating out of Venezuela.

London suspended intelligence-sharing over concerns that the strikes violate international law. A UK military official told reporters: “We don’t just target the vessel and kill people. We would arrest them.”

Previously, the UK had deployed intelligence resources in its Caribbean overseas territories to assist the US Coast Guard in intercepting vessels suspected of drug trafficking.

The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Turk, condemned the strikes as “extrajudicial killing.” Venezuela and neighboring Colombia have denied that those killed were linked to criminal cartels. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected Trump’s claims that his government profits from the drug trade.

Trump has positioned a naval fleet, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, off Venezuela’s coast and suggested he could authorize strikes on Venezuelan soil, though he denies seeking regime change. Maduro has placed the military on alert and vowed to repel any attack.

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