According to an indictment recently unsealed by a U.S. federal court in New York, Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Nicolas Maduro, is directly involved in the drug trafficking operations of the Cartel of the Suns. Miami Herald report on wednesday.
The court documents say Herald Despite not playing a leading role in the initial conference formalizing his socialist government’s drug trafficking operations through the cartels, Maduro claimed he eventually came to lead the organization long accused of trying to “flood” the United States with cocaine and harm its people.
The Cartel of the Suns is an intercontinental cocaine trafficking organization run by high-ranking Venezuelan military officials and key figures in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The criminal organization takes its name from the sun-like insignia worn by senior Venezuelan military officers.
Unlike traditional hierarchical drug cartels, the Venezuelan Cartel of the Suns Believed It operates through a “network of networks” that is deeply rooted in the various sectors of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Armed Forces. repetition He espouses an ideological doctrine of “thorough Chavismo” and anti-Americanism and had long ago pledged allegiance to the PSUV.
Experts Accused The Socialist drug cartel has been accused of waging an “asymmetric war” against the United States by smuggling cocaine into the U.S. The group is widely believed to be allied with other drug trafficking organizations, including the Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), another Colombian terrorist organization.
US authorities have identified Nicolas Maduro, a strongman in the ruling Socialist Party. Drug trafficking boss Diosdado Cabello; Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and the now excommunicated former oil minister and Hezbollah Intermediary Tarek El Aissami is one of the cartel’s most prominent leaders, and US authorities are offering a bounty for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Maduro, Cabelloand El Aissami From 2020.
of Miami Herald The report explained that while Maduro was indicted in 2020 as a member of the cartel, the “prevailing view” was that he played a minor role in the cartel itself, with Cabello and El Aissami heading up the organisation.
The indictment, which has not been made public, shows that Maduro’s name was barely mentioned in the first meetings the late dictator Hugo Chavez had with FARC leaders as they forged an alliance to transport cocaine to the United States.
Before becoming Venezuela’s dictator in 2013, Maduro served as President Chavez’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2012 and as speaker of the National Assembly in 2005 and 2006. Maduro served as President Chavez’s vice president from October 2012 to March 5, 2013, when the ruling socialist party declared Claim Chavez died from a type of cancer that has yet to be disclosed.
Court documents allege that Maduro’s influence in Venezuela’s drug cartels expanded after he succeeded Chavez as Venezuela’s dictator and “the interests of drug trafficking activities became intertwined with the affairs of the state.”
“The U.S. State Department puts the annual amount of narcotics passing through Venezuela at more than 250 tons,” the report states. “Experts now believe the current amount being exported from Venezuela is double that amount.”
According to the unsealed indictment, in addition to increasing the wealth and power of its members, the Cartel of the Suns was a drug trafficking organization that “flooded” the United States with cocaine and “attempted to expose the harmful and addictive effects of drugs to drug users in this country.”
The indictment further alleges that Maduro participated in negotiations to “secure several tons of cocaine shipments” in exchange for funds and weapons for the FARC, and that he coordinated with Honduras and other Central American countries to “ensure uninterrupted passage of narcotics shipments bound for the United States.”
Maduro’s coordination has led to the creation of a drug “air bridge” in the region, the report said.
The indictment also alleges that President Hugo Chavez asked President Maduro in 2005 to help the Cartel of the Suns identify and remove judges who were unwilling to protect FARC and its drug trafficking activities. During his time as foreign minister, one of President Maduro’s roles was allegedly to ensure that the Venezuelan-Colombian border remained open “to allow the unhindered entry of cargo from neighboring countries.”
Maduro has made $5 million from drug trafficking and is alleged to have been involved in money laundering activities linked to palm oil operations before the Sunshine Cartel began laundering the money through state oil company PDVSA.
“After Chavez’s death and Maduro’s assumption of office in 2013, drug trafficking continued to expand and Chavez’s family sought to directly benefit from it,” the report alleges.
In 2015, a DEA sting operation in Haiti Arrest Maduro’s nephews, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, were then Narcosobrinos (“The Narco Nephews”), the two men were arrested by DEA agents while attempting to transport 800 kilograms of cocaine produced by the FARC, according to law enforcement officials.
The socialist dictator’s drug-trafficking nephews were sentenced to 18 years in prison in December 2017. release In October 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration released seven wrongfully imprisoned American oil workers as part of a prisoner swap with the Maduro regime.
of Miami Herald Two of the DEA informants involved in the investigation were Narcosobrinos He was killed after his arrest.
Reports Published By Miami Herald The November report claimed the Cartel of the Suns was now capable of transporting more than 350 tonnes of cocaine a year, valued at between $6.2 billion and $8.7 billion. It explained that more than two decades of socialist misrule had left the Venezuelan economy in ruins, leaving the Maduro regime severely short of cash and “increasingly reliant” on drug trafficking.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan author documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter. here.
