Maduro actively involved in Sun Cartel, report says

The key figures of the Venezuelan regime are three individuals wanted in the United States since 2020 for participating in a drug and terrorist conspiracy, transforming Venezuela into a criminal organization at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups, and stealing billions of dollars from the South American country.

Topping the list is Nicolás Maduro. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges of drug trafficking and conspiracy to transport controlled substances against Defense Minister and Bolivarian Armed Forces General Vladimir Padrino, as well as against lawmaker Diosdado Cabello Rondón, vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, who was also charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Over the years, Maduro’s role in the transnational criminal organization (TCO) known as the Cartel of the Suns—named for the sun insignia worn by Venezuelan generals on their epaulets—became increasingly prominent, wielding great influence within the cartel and being far more involved in drug trafficking than previously thought, eventually becoming the TCO’s supreme leader, the Miami Herald as indicated in a recent report.

The newspaper bases its claim on the contents of an additional indictment in the file against one of the group’s administrators, Carlos Orense Azócar, alias El Gordo, who was extradited from Italy in 2022 and convicted in New York in December 2023 for drug trafficking.

The indictment reveals, among other things, that Maduro received $5 million in 2006 from his associates in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). These funds, the document states, were laundered through the purchase of palm oil processing equipment from Malaysia.

When Maduro took over as leader of the regime in 2013, he reportedly agreed with the FARC’s main leader, Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez, to continue supplying weapons in exchange for drugs and to train non-state armed groups in a field in Zulia state, on the border with Colombia.

At least one of the weapons shipments to the criminal group, carried out in 2015, involved the direct participation of Diosdado Cabello, the indictment states. There, the guerrillas received machine guns, ammunition and rocket launchers. “Cabello and others discussed the fact that the weapons were partial payment for cocaine that the FARC had delivered to members of the Cartel of the Suns,” the document states.

Generals Clíver Alcalá Cordones and Hugo Carvajal participated in the same criminal structure. The former was sentenced to 21 years in prison in April, while Carvajal (former Venezuelan intelligence czar) is still awaiting trial in the United States.

Power structure

The Cartel of the Suns’ organizational hierarchy is not traditional. It consists of cells that are illegally embedded in the main branches of the Venezuelan armed forces, including the army, navy, air force and Bolivarian National Guard, says InSight Crimean organization dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America. “These cells operate autonomously, without a defined chain of command, making it difficult to identify a clear chain of command.”

The cartel is made up of high-ranking Venezuelan regime and military officials, who use their positions to facilitate and protect criminal activities. In addition to Maduro, Cabello is another prominent leader, BBC News World reported.

The Cartel of the Suns not only formed alliances with the FARC, but also with FARC dissidents and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the main drug suppliers in Venezuela. Voice of America reported. “These alliances allow them to maintain a steady flow of cocaine and other illicit products.”

The Cartel of the Suns has a strong presence in border states with Colombia such as Apure, Zulia and Tachira, where most drug trafficking activities are concentrated. The Bolivarian National Guard plays a crucial role in controlling these areas and protecting drug trafficking routes. InSight Crime indicated.

“The main role of the Venezuelan military involved in drug trafficking is to allow the safe passage of cocaine shipments and to approve the arrival and departure of aircraft that transport the drugs to other countries,” InSight Crime said. The organization has facilitated the smuggling of cocaine into the region and the United States for more than 20 years, BBC News World.

According to Carlos Tablante, former president of Venezuela’s National Commission Against Illicit Drug Use (Conacuid) and former member of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly in 1999, this goes beyond a simple conspiracy to traffic drugs, as this is an entire regime immersed in illegal activities, “entrenched in power.”

“The Venezuelan regime maintains a criminal state, where part of the criminal activity is drug trafficking. But I don’t know if it is the most important thing, or at least it wasn’t the most important thing when we had income from oil production and from differential exchange,” Tablante said. Dialogue on August 4th.

With the decline in oil production, drug trafficking became more important. “I have no doubt that the members of the Cartel of the Suns are the main operators of this kleptocratic structure,” he concluded.