Drug trafficking generated more than $8.2 billion in Venezuela in 2024, according to a report published by the non-government organization Transparencia Venezuela on Wednesday.
The report – titled “Drug Trafficking in Venezuela 2024: An Expanding Business that Brings Profits to the Power Elite” – claimed to demonstrate how Venezuela has turned into a “key hub” for global drug trafficking while highlightning the economic impact of said criminal activity in the country.
The report asserted that “hundreds of kilograms, even tons of drugs” continue to transit daily through Venezuela, stressing that “this cannot be concealed” by the policies of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, the harassment of researchers, or disinformation campaigns promoted by state and “private” media outlets collaborating with the regime.
Transparencia Venezuela, an NGO now operating in exile, explained in a press release that the amount of $8.2 billion in income allegedly generated by drug trafficking in Venezuela was calculated by economists using the average wholesale price of cocaine hydrochloride in regions where Venezuela serves as a supplier, using statistical information published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Maduro regime, naturally, does not produce any official information on drug production.
The organization further explained that the volume of drugs estimated was based on cocaine production figures in neighboring Colombia during 2023, itself estimated by the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“Considering that Colombia produced at least 2,664 tons of cocaine in 2023, it is estimated that approximately 639 tons of cocaine circulated through Venezuela in that same period,” the report read. “When multiplying this total amount by the average wholesale price at which drugs are sold in the main markets where the merchandise from Venezuela arrives, it can be assumed that drug trafficking generated a gross income of USD 8.236 million in Venezuela during 2024.”
The report listed groups and individuals involved in the production, distribution, and commercialization of each of the drug shipments transiting through Venezuela, accusing them of “taking advantage of their capacities and positions of power to infringe the laws, violate borders and enjoy the proceeds.”
Transparencia Venezuela emphasized the illicit activities of the Cartel of the Suns, an intercontinental cocaine trafficking operation run by high-ranking members of the Venezuelan military and by some leading figures of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). U.S. authorities have long accused the Cartel of the Suns of attempting to “flood” the United States with cocaine with the intention of harming its people.
In addition to the Cartel of the Suns, the report also lists Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Cartel, Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Marxist terrorist groups, and the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization as some of the criminal organizations involved. Others named included “enablers of drug trafficking,” individuals or agents who, while not part of a criminal organization, “deliberately or unintentionally” participate in drug trafficking by supplying arms and ammunition. This category also includes those who engage in drug cultivation, transport, storage, banking, or other logistical activities.
Transparencia Venezuela stressed that one of the main changes in drug trafficking in Venezuela is the appointment of new anti-narcotics authorities involved in drug trafficking themselves, such as Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s current interior minister and the vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Cabello is a long-suspected drug lord wanted by U.S. authorities.
Cabello, believed to be a leading figure in the Cartel of the Suns, took office as interior minister in August 2024 at a time when the Maduro regime launched a brutal persecution campaign against dissidents following a fraudulent presidential election that Maduro “won” in July. All ten Venezuelan law enforcement agencies in charge of leading anti-narcotics efforts, the report explained, are under Cabello’s instruction.
“He [Cabello] is in charge of citizen security, coordination and supervision of the actions of the police forces, as well as public policies on drug trafficking, illicit drug consumption and money laundering,” Transparencia Venezuela said. “Also from the vice presidency [of Politics, Citizen Security, and Peace] he regulates any coordinated activity between ministries to guarantee the control of drug trafficking.”
Other agencies with jurisdiction over drugs in Venezuela are the Public Prosecutor’s Office and local courts and the Defense Ministry, which includes the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and its Anti-Drug Committee. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, another suspected leading member of the Cartel of the Suns, is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine onboard an aircraft registered in the United States.
“Seven of the highest authorities in charge of these agencies or bodies have been sanctioned by the European Union and countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Panama, Switzerland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Liechtenstein, Norway and Ukraine for undermining democracy and the rule of law, corruption and violation of human rights,” the report read.
The report also explained that, once the drug enters Venezuelan territory, it is allegedly then shipped to Caribbean islands, Central America, and Europe through three different departure points. The main route, the report claimed, is located in the Venezuelan states of Zulia, Táchira, and Apure, which neighbor Colombia’s Catatumbo region, considered as the main coca cultivation enclave of Colombia.
Due to its proximity to other Caribbean nations, Venezuela’s Falcón state is also reportedly exploited by criminal organizations to transport drug shipments to Aruba and Curacao. In Central Venezuela, the report detailed that the drugs transit through the states of La Guaira (also known as Vargas before the Maduro regime “decolonized” its name) and Carabobo, where the main Venezuelan ports and airports are located. In eastern Venezuela, a third drug-trafficking route was reportedly established across the states of Nueva Esparta, Sucre, Monagas and Delta Amacuro, a few miles off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here
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