The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday imposed sanctions on Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s convicted drug-trafficking nephews.
Flores and Flores de Freitas were arrested and convicted of drug trafficking crimes in the United States, but released and sent back to Venezuela by former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2022.
OFAC also reinstated U.S. sanctions on Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, another of Maduro’s nephews. Malpica was originally sanctioned by President Donald Trump in his first term but had his sanctions lifted by the Biden administration.
“Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. “These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he concluded.
Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas are Maduro’s most infamous nephews, widely referred to as the narcosobrinos (“narco-nephews”) in Venezuela. The United States originally arrested the narco-nephews in 2015 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as they were attempting to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to the United States, according to prosecutors.
U.S. courts convicted and sentenced both nephews to 18 years in a U.S. prison in December 2017 on drug trafficking charges. In October 2022, former U.S. President Joe Biden granted clemency to the two men and sent them back to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap deal with Nicolás Maduro.
OFAC pointed out that, as of 2025, both Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas “have continued their drug trafficking activities.”
“OFAC is designating Campo and Flores de Freitas pursuant to E.O. 14059, for having engaged in or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production,” the statement read.
In addition to the narco-nephews, OFAC reinstated sanctions on a third nephew of the Venezuelan dictator, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores — who previously served as Maduro’s national treasurer and occupied key positions at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry at a time when Maduro served as late dictator Hugo Chávez’s top diplomat.
The United States, during President Trump’s first term, imposed sanctions on Malpica in 2017 for his involvement in corruption surrounding foreign currency black markets caused by the socialist regime’s draconian foreign currency control agencies. Malpica’s sanctions were part of a broader list of sanctions targeting key members of the Maduro regime involved in a litany of actions towards undermining democracy in Venezuela, corruption, and the repression of dissidents.
OFAC detailed that the Biden administration lifted sanctions on Malpica in 2022 amid ultimately failed negotiations with the Maduro regime that sought to convince Maduro to hold a “free and fair” election in Venezuela. Biden’s efforts, and other even more generous concessions such as oil and gas sanctions relief, did not achieve its alleged intended goal of restoring democracy in the South American country — instead, Maduro dramatically intensified his regime’s brutal repression of citizens and held a highly fraudulent election in 2024.
“This action is just the latest Treasury effort targeting Maduro’s familial web of corruption, nepotism, and narco-trafficking. Malpica, Campo, and Flores de Freitas join Maduro, Cilia Flores, Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra, and Cilia Flores’ three sons, Walter Gavidia Flores, Yosser Gavidia Flores, and Yoswal Gavidia Flores, on the [List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons] SDN List,” OFAC informed.
The Biden administration’s 2022 release and return to Venezuela of the narco-nephews is one of the two most emblematic concessions granted by former President Biden to Maduro — rivaled only by the release and return of Alex Saab in December 2023.
Saab, a Colombian national, is believed to be Maduro’s top money launderer and financial brain. U.S. officials arrested Saab in 2020 at Cape Verde and was undergoing trial proceedings on charges of using the U.S. financial system to launder $350 million from Venezuelan state coffers when Biden released him and returned him to Venezuela as part of another prisoner swap deal with Maduro. Presently, Saab serves as Maduro’s Industries Minister.
OFAC also imposed sanctions on Thursday against Panamanian Businessman Ramon Carretero Napolitano for his involvement in lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime and business dealings with the dictator’s family. OFAC also sanctioned six different shipping companies involved in the transport of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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