A newly revealed memo reported by the Wall Street Journal justifying the Trump administration's series of military strikes on boats in international Caribbean waters declares fentanyl to be a chemical weapons threat.

However, the memo stops just short of actually citing this supposed chemical weapons threat as one of the justifications.

"The lengthy document by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel outlines the Trump administration’s still-secret legal justification for the continuing military operation, which has sparked sharp criticism from Democrats and some Republicans since the strikes began in September," said the report. "The main argument in the memo is that President Trump’s designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorists makes them legitimate military targets, asserting that the groups are smuggling drugs to fund deadly and destabilizing actions against the U.S. and its allies, according to lawmakers and others who have read it."

However, the memo also lists fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid that is known for triggering accidental overdoses from contamination in other drugs, as a possible chemical weapon.

According to the report, "the brief also asserts the U.S. is involved in a noninternational armed conflict with the cartels, a legal term denoting one within the territory of a single state. Since it is a legal fight, the memo argues, U.S. military personnel involved are acting lawfully and wouldn’t be subject to future prosecution, several people who have read it say."

This comes after other reports that a memo justifying the strikes relied on talking points from the White House, arguing that drug traffickers are terrorists deliberately trying to finance international violence.

The Pentagon has admitted it doesn't positively identify the people killed in the targeted strikes, which run contrary to decades of international law and U.S. policy, and even John Yoo, the former DOJ lawyer who justified the George W. Bush administration's use of torture, has said these strikes are likely illegal.