The latest transnational journalistic investigation, led by the international investigative journalism organization Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), in partnership with the Latin American Center of Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and various other Latin American organizations, highlights the deep involvement of the Venezuelan regime and its military in the drug trade. The project, released on November 6, began with a massive leak of documents from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.
“The management of cocaine trafficking in Venezuela is not something new,” Euclides Tapia, a senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Panama, told Diálogo on November 26. “Since Maduro took control, he has been identified as the main person responsible for this illegal and money-laundering mechanism.”
The investigation includes testimonies of former officials of the Chavista regime, DEA agents, and former members of the Cartel of the Suns, detailing the operations of the criminal group led by high commanders of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, and supporting the allegations of the U.S. justice system.
“It has no boss, but it is managed by the senior officers of the National Armed Forces. It makes little noise, but it has allies as powerful as the Sinaloa Cartel and the ELN [National Liberation Army]. Its structure is hazy, it is sometimes considered a legend, but it exists, and it can move up to 350 tons of cocaine a year. Between rivers, farms, and airplanes, the Cartel of the Suns continues to traffic in Venezuela, as established by the accusations of the U.S. justice system and now supported by dozens of documents from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office,” Venezuelan investigative news site Armando.info reported.
In 2020, the U.S. Justice Department charged Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and high-ranking officials of his regime for leading the Cartel of the Suns to traffic cocaine to the United States. The Colombian leak confirms the alliance with dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), even after the demobilization of most of the guerrillas.
A former DEA agent told OCCRP that, given the hierarchy in the military, top leaders and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who control territory alongside the Bolivarian Army and the National Guard, were directly involved.
The leaked documents revealed the involvement of more than 75 high-ranking regime officials and businessmen linked to the cartel, including members of the Armed Forces, local and regional officials, as well as businessmen who protect and cover up the activities and assets of the Cartel of the Suns.
Targets and tactics
The drug trafficking network created by the Venezuelan regime has four central objectives: to make periodic payments to military units; to establish secure corridors for the transport of drugs; to use military vehicles to move drugs; and to control the trafficking infrastructure, especially in ports and airports, London-based intelligence firm Grey Dynamics indicated.
It further notes that in two decades the Cartel of the Suns evolved from a disorganized trafficking network into an elaborate system of clientelism. This system is used to distribute the wealth generated by drug trafficking to those individuals Maduro perceives as critical to sustaining the stability of the regime.
The Venezuelan Army facilitates drug trafficking on land, sea, and air by allowing the passage and protection of shipments, manipulating radars for illegal flights, receiving payments to avoid searches, and authorizing the departure of shipments from facilities guarded by military and government agents, Grey Dynamics indicated.
“Maduro [through the Cartel of the Suns] is attempting to institutionalize cocaine trafficking, considerably increasing the capacity to increase the drug trade directly, which could prove even riskier,” Tapia said.
International trafficking
Trafficking from Colombia to Venezuela begins with coca leaf production in Catatumbo. According to the OCCRP report, most of the coca cultivation in the 42,000 hectares of this area bordering Zulia state heads to Venezuela via the Catatumbo, Zulia, and Tarra rivers.
Once in Venezuela, the cartel sends the cocaine to ports and clandestine airstrips. These shipments are smuggled to intermediate destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, Suriname, Guyana, and even, in some cases, to final destinations such as the United States and Europe.
In recent years, according to the report, the cartel evolved from transporting to processing merchandise. They established a network of laboratories in Venezuela that can transform coca paste into powder cocaine, resulting in more substantial profits.
The most recent report of nongovernmental organization Transparencia Venezuela states that drug trafficking is the number one illicit economy in the country. Cartels, guerrilla groups, and other criminal organizations made profits of more than $5 billion in 2022, equivalent to 8.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Cocaine production in Venezuela’s border region, marked by poverty, isolation, and the dominance of armed groups, is conducive to its expansion. In a country mired in a severe economic crisis and a corrupt government, this is a major threat, said InSight Crime, an international organization dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America.
‘Immunity’
The Cartel of the Suns’ involvement is not limited to international and local drug trafficking. Its activities also include gasoline smuggling, illegal mining, logging, illegal sales of regulated products, and arms and ammunition trafficking inside prisons, Grey Dynamics noted.
“Their sense of immunity stems from internal and external backing by nations such as China and Russia, particularly the backing of the Russian Army,” Tapia said. “They believe that no one has the capability to remove Maduro or his power structure, which gives them a sense of absolute security.”
However, “Maduro’s fate could follow the trajectory of Manuel Noriega, the captured and imprisoned dictator,” Tapia added. “A conviction by the International Criminal Court for human rights violations would leave him with few options for refuge: Cuba, China, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, or Russia. Otherwise, he would be at risk of arrest.”