Donald Trump has offered to send in the US army to take on Mexican drugs cartels after at least three women and six children from an American Mormon community based in northern Mexico were killed in an ambush.

Mr Trump tweeted that “the United States stands ready, willing and able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” adding that “sometimes need an army to defeat an army!”

He added: “This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage war on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!”

Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the US drugs enforcement agency (DEA), who spent 20 years infiltrating Mexican and Colombian cartels, said Mr Trump’s statement was “absolutely absurd”.

He told The Telegraph: “The US army is good at what it does, but is not trained to engage in counter-drug operations. Trump has absolutely no understanding of sovereignty issues, nor the drug problem.”