Cartel of the Suns

In 1993, the term Cartel de los Soles or "Cartel of the Suns" was first used when two National Guard generals of the Anti-Drug National Command, Ramón Guillén Dávila and Orlando Hernández Villegas, were investigated for alleged drug trafficking crimes. It was discovered that Guillén approved a cocaine shipment from Venezuela to the United States, following demands from undercover CIA agents, which sought to infiltrate Colombian gangs trafficking cocaine into the United States. Thor Halvorssen, the anti-drug commissioner in Venezuela, defended Guillén's innocence regarding the cocaine shipment. Reports that members of the Venezuelan military were involved in drug trafficking emerged in 1998, though they were limited to the taking of payments and ignoring drug traffickers. According to Héctor Landaeta, a journalist and author of Chavismo, Narco-trafficking and the Military, the phenomenon began when Colombian drugs began to enter into Venezuela from corrupt border units and the "rot moved its way up the ranks". Bolivarian government The "Cartel of the Suns" name returned in 2004, when it was used by reporter and city council member Mauro Marcano to describe corruption in the Venezuelan government. Shortly before he was murdered, Marcano alleged that Alexis Maneiro, head of the National Guard and the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, was involved in drug trafficking. In 2005, Chávez expelled the US Drug Enforcement Administration from Venezuela, accusing it of espionage. Chávez claimed that his administration's efforts against drug trafficking became more effective without US involvement as drug seizures increased by 80% that year. However, they declined in later years. According to Colombian intelligence, an arrested drug vigilante stated that "senior figures in President Hugo Chávez's security forces arranged drug shipments through Venezuela". It has been alleged that the National Guard also worked with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to facilitate the drug trade. British officials alleged that planes from Colombia involved in trafficking drugs would be sheltered by Venezuelan Air Force bases. On 15 February 2014, a commander of the Venezuelan National Guard was arrested while driving to Valencia with his family with 554 kilos of cocaine in his possession. On 11 November 2015, DEA agents in Haiti arrested two relatives (an adopted son and nephew) of Cilia Flores, the first lady of Venezuela, as they attempted to move 800 kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States. A source from the DEA unofficially stated that the shipment was allowed to pass through Venezuela due to government corruption. According to Robert E. Looney, the shipment might have been made possible by the help of corrupt members of the Venezuelan Presidential Honor Guard. Two of the indicted officials have since pleaded guilty in US federal courts. In June 2023, retired General Clíver Alcalá Cordones pleaded guilty to providing material support and firearms to the FARC; he was sentenced to 21 years and 6 months in prison in April 2024. In June 2025, former military intelligence director Hugo Carvajal (who had been extradited from Spain in 2023) pleaded guilty to all four charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. On 16 November 2025, the US Department of State designated them as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, alleging they were "responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe", calling them "narco-terrorists", and stating that the Maduro regime is "illegitimate" and that "neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela's legitimate government". The designation took effect on 24 November 2025. Following the US SDGT designation, several Latin American governments issued similar declarations. As of November 2025, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru have also designated the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization. Other regional leaders have disputed the US allegations. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, when asked about the US allegations at a press conference, answered that it was the first time she had heard of such accusations and requested the US produce supporting evidence. Colombian president Gustavo Petro denounced US actions, dismissing the Department of Justice's allegations as a fabricated pretext to force regime change. The Colombian Senate subsequently defied Petro, voting 33 to 20 to declare the Cartel of the Suns a transnational criminal and terrorist organization. The main source of drugs in the US is the synthetic opioid fentanyl from Mexico and cocaine from Colombia; Venezuela does not produce or ship fentanyl. While it is a transit country for Colombian cocaine, it is estimated that 400 tones of cocaine transit through it yearly, most of it destined for Europe, while about 2660 tones of cocaine are produced on annual basis in Colombia. However, according to former US officials, Venezuela is unique because of "the degree of state control and involvement in the drugs trade." In August 2025, the United States deployed 4,500 troops and several Navy warships to the southern Caribbean as part of a major counter-narcotics operation aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks, including groups such as Cartel of the Suns. Effective November 24 2025, the Department of State of the Trump Administration escalated its targeting of the Cartel of the Suns by designating it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) headed by Nicolás Maduro. The move received criticism from experts who do not consider it an actual drug organization led by Maduro and was described as providing a legal rationale for possible military action and regime change in Venezuela. ==Organization==

The Cartel of the Suns allegedly operates through multiple branches of the Armed Forces of Venezuela, including the Venezuelan Army, Venezuelan Navy, Venezuelan Air Force, and Venezuelan National Guard, encompassing the lowest to the highest levels of personnel. Low-level personnel Allegedly, lower ranking National Guardsmen compete for positions at border checkpoints so they can be paid bribes for "illicit trade", though a large portion of bribes go to their superiors. According to these allegations, corrupt officials then traffic drugs from Colombia to Venezuela where they are shipped internationally. High-level officials (2020) Nicolás Maduro President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro has personally promoted individuals accused of drug trafficking to high positions in the Venezuelan government. In May 2018, he was alleged to have received drug trafficking profits from Diosdado Cabello by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. The bounty was doubled to $50 million on 7 August 2025, under the Trump Administration. On 3 January 2026, Maduro was captured during the 2026 United States strikes in Venezuela by US forces and flown to the United States, where he faced charges in the Southern District of New York. He is accused of being the leader of the Cartel of the Suns and "using cocaine to deliberately flood America with drugs" as part of its activity. The New York prosecutors accused Maduro of having personally worked and participated in drug trafficking activities with the Mexican Sinaloa, Zeta, and Tren de Aragua cartels. The new indictment did not refer to the Cartel of the Suns as a formal group, instead referring to Maduro's position atop a corrupt, drug-trafficking backed patronage system. Salazar was placed in witness protection, fleeing to the United States with assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Operations Division after cooperating with the administration and providing details on Cabello's possible involvement with international drug trade. Henry Rangel Silva In 2008, OFAC sanctioned the general Henry Rangel Silva and other two current or former Venezuelan government officials, saying there was evidence they had materially helped the FARC in the illegal drug trade. The order "freezes any assets the designated entities and individuals may have under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions involving those assets". In the 2012 Venezuelan regional elections, Rangel Silva was elected governor of Trujillo state by 82.30% of the vote. He was re-elected in the 2017 Venezuelan regional elections by 59.75% of the vote. Tareck El Aissami Tareck El Aissami was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on 13 February 2017 under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, after being accused of facilitating drug shipments from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States. The order froze tens of millions of dollars of assets purportedly under his control. Néstor Reverol Néstor Reverol, head of the Bolivarian National Guard, was indicted by the United States government in August 2016 for assisting drug trafficking in Venezuela. Reverol allegedly tipped off traffickers, cancelled investigations and released those involved in drug shipments. On 22 July 2014, Carvajal, the former head of Venezuelan military-intelligence, was detained in Aruba, despite having been admitted on a diplomatic passport and being named consul general to Aruba in January. The arrest was carried out following a formal request by the US government, which accuses Carvajal of ties to drug trafficking and the FARC guerrilla group. On 27 July 2014, Carvajal was released after authorities decided he had diplomatic immunity but was subsequently considered persona non grata. In July 2023, Carvajal was arrested in Spain and extradited to the US, where in June 2025 he pleaded guilty to four charges, including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. Yazenky Lamas Yazenky Lamas, former pilot to First Lady Cilia Flores, was extradited to the United States from Colombia, having allegedly provided air traffic codes, which would allow planes carrying cocaine to impersonate commercial flights. President Maduro reportedly asked Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas Echeverri to reject the request for his extradition. Lamas was linked to hundreds of drug flights operated in Venezuela. Others Other officials have also been implicated in or accused of involvement with drug trafficking, according to InSight Crime's 2018 report "Venezuela: A Mafia State?":{{columns-list|*Clíver Alcalá Cordones • Freddy Bernal • José David Cabello • Amílcar Figueroa • Bladimir Flores • Carlos Malpica Flores • Walter Gavidia Flores • Darry Fortoul Ochoa • Eliecer García Torrealba • Carlos Justiniano Núñez • Jesús Itriago • Ramón Madriz • Rodolfo McTurk • Pedro Martín Olivares • Edylberto Molina • Frank Morgado • Benny Palmeri-Bacchi • Rafael Ramírez • Ramon Rodriguez Chacin ==Allies==

FARC In 2005, all branches of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela were assigned to combat drug trafficking in Venezuela, granting data once held only by the Bolivarian National Guard to the army, navy and air force. Mildred Camero, a former anti-drug official of the Chávez government, said this data created competition within the ranks of the military, who fought to make deals with the FARC to actively partake in drug trafficking. According to Interpol, the files found by Colombian forces were considered to be authentic. In 2008, the United States Department of Treasury accused two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official of providing material assistance to drug-trafficking operations carried out by the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia. Independent analyses by some US academics and journalists have challenged the Colombian interpretation of the documents, accusing the Colombian government of exaggerating their contents. In 2008, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, testified before the US Congress that "there are no evidences" that Venezuela is supporting "terrorist groups", including the FARC. Three years later, in 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concluded that Chávez's government funded FARC's Caracas office and granted it access to intelligence services. Venezuelan diplomats denounced the IISS findings, saying that they had "basic inaccuracies". As of 2018, FARC dissidents who left FARC when it disbanded in 2017 still operate within Venezuela with virtual impunity. These dissident forces, with armed personnel numbering up to 2,500 individuals, allegedly still cooperate with the Cartel of the Suns. According to InSight Crime, ever since the dissolution of FARC, the ELN has taken over the role as a shipments supplier and operation overseer inside Venezuela, and consolidated control along the Colombian-Venezuela border, becoming a strategic partner for the Venezuelan government. The US government accused Maduro's administration of providing a "permissive environment" for the ELN and its operations. According to CTC Sentinel, the Venezuelan government protects the ELN from Colombian security forces and allows it to conduct financial and recruitment operations within its borders. In exchange, the ELN declared that it will defend Venezuela from foreign intervention. The organization is present in up to 13 Venezuelan states, employing about 15,000 Venezuelans along the border with Colombia; it has also reportedly taken over illegal mining operations from criminal groups in Venezuela, including the Orinoco Mining Arc. The organization actively recruits impoverished Venezuelans, and has established five radio stations in Venezuela to promote its ideology and attract recruits. It is also alleged to have assumed state functions in some parts of Venezuela, taxing local businesses and residents in the areas it controls, and providing local communities with food supplies, weapons, military training and ideological education. It has been found that ELN distributes food supplies from the Venezuelan Local Committees for Supply and Production in 39 municipalities. It enforces its own rules in Venezuelan territories under its control, reportedly conducting executions for petty crime as well as drug or alcohol consumption. Political scientists Juan Antonio Blanco and Emilio Morales argue that Cuba provides financial, logistical and intelligence support to the Cartel of the Suns, granting it international protection and allowing to bypass international sanctions imposed on Venezuela. Cuba reportedly also provides a sanctuary and training to officials and guerillas involved in the Cartel of the Suns. Blanco and Morales also claim that Cuba convinced Chávez that he would be able to remain in power if he subjected Venezuelan armed forces to inspection and monitoring by the Cuban intelligence apparatus. Because of this, Blanco and Morales contend that the Cartel of the Suns represents a "two-headed mafia state". Hugo Carvajal, the former head of the Venezuelan military-intelligence who defected from the Venezuelan government in 2017, contends that top leaders of Maduro's administration operate the Cartel of the Suns "to weaponize drugs against the United States". He claimed that Cuba is the mastermind behind the Cartel of the Suns, reportedly suggesting weaponized drug trafficking to Chávez in the mid-2000s and helping Venezuela organize the Cartel of the Suns. According to the American diplomat Roger Noriega, Cuban military officials such as Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, the son-in-law of Raul Castro, are involved in the drug trafficking operations of the Cartel of the Suns. Center for a Free Cuba claimed that "the Cuban regime played a key role in establishing drug trafficking operations in Venezuela", stating that the alliance of Venezuela with FARC and ELN was forged "under Cuba's direction" and that "the Cuban government protects and facilitates certain drug trafficking routes from Venezuelan territory to the United States." The organization alleged that Cuban intelligence as well as diplomats such as the former Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, Germán Sánchez Otero, participate in drug trafficking activities of the Cartel of the Suns. Nicaragua Nicaraguan leaders Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are alleged to have links to the Cartel of the Suns. Nicaragua was alleged to be the part of the "criminal ecosystem" of the Cartel of the Suns by political scientists Juan Antonio Blanco and Emilio Morales. The Security Minister of Costa Rica, Mario Zamora Cordero, stated that the Cartel of the Suns might be present in the Crucitas area in Cutris, a border area where Nicaraguan miners illegally operate. The area has been a place of armed clashes between Nicaraguan miners and the Costa Rican security forces. Donald Trump has claimed that the President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is a "narco-terrorist". Ortega expressed his solidarity with Venezuela and Maduro, and condemned the military operations of United States against the Venezuelan government. The Nicaraguan Sandinista leadership has been accused of being involved in the drug trafficking operations of the Cartel of the Suns, making Nicaragua a transit country where cocaine is stored before it can be smuggled north to Mexico and the United States. Roberto Samcam, a former Sandinista official who later became a critic of President Ortega, claimed that the Nicaraguan government has its own drug trafficking network known as the "El Carmen Cartel". Samcam contends that "there is a very close relationship between the Cartel of the Suns and what is known as the El Carmen Cartel", and that "it would be very naive to think that much of the money in Nicaragua doesn't come from the Cartel of the Suns". In 2025, Samcam was assassinated while in exile in Costa Rica. El País attributted the assassination to "Sandinista cells" in Costa Rica, arguing that it is not the first time a Nicaraguan opposition figure was assassinated in Costa Rica - in June 2022, Rodolfo Rojas was assassinated, and in October 2024, Jaime Luis Ortega Chavarría, both critics of the Ortega regime. Hamas and Hezbollah Members of Hamas and Hezbollah are alleged to be involved in Cartel of the Suns. Timothy Shea, former acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Geoffrey Berman, who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused Hamas and Hezbollah of participating in weapons-for-cocaine agreements, supplying FARC members and Venezuelan officials with anti-tank rocket launchers, and alleged that the Cartel of the Suns recruited members of both Hamas and Hezbollah "for the purpose of helping to plan and organize attacks against United States interests." Shea and Berman argued that Adel el Zabayar, a PSUV member who presides over the Federation of Arab Associations and Entities of Venezuela (), served as the middleman between the Cartel of the Suns and Middle Eastern militias. Others On 13 January 2026, the federal court in New York sentenced Carlos Orense Azocar, nicknamed "El Gordo", to life imprisonment plus 30 additional years for drug trafficking and weapons-related crimes. The US investigators stated that Azocar as "as one of the oldest operators linked to the so-called Cartel de los Soles", while Miami Herald described the case as "one of the most sweeping narcotics prosecutions ever brought against a figure tied to Venezuela’s shadowy drug networks and alleged corruption at the highest levels of the Caracas regime and its military." According to Infobae, apart from Venezuelan officials, Azocar was also cooperating with corrupt Colombian military officials as well as high-ranking executives in the state-owned oil industry in the United States, including a former Citgo Petroleum Corporation executive. ==Nature and dispute over structure==

Although widespread political corruption in Venezuela and the involvement of high-ranking members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces and Bolivarian regime members in drug trafficking are well documented, whether this involvement constitutes a unified cartel remains a subject of dispute and is viewed by most independent experts as lacking evidence. Use of the label "Cartel of the Suns" has been criticized, with some experts arguing that there is no evidence which would substantiate direct and unified government involvement in drug trafficking. InSight Crime argued that the US sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis against the "so-called 'Cartel of the Suns' incorrectly portray it as a hierarchical, ideologically driven drug trafficking organisation rather than a profit-based system of generalised corruption involving high-ranking military figures," who argued that "the charge of central coordination by Maduro is indicative of US efforts to delegitimize the Venezuelan government." According to InSight Crime's 2022 investigative news report, the nature of the Cartel of the Suns changed after 2017, owing to the severe economic and financial crisis in Venezuela, which prevented the state from ensuring due pay to members of the military and law enforcement. Their report further argues that in the mid-2010s, the Cartel of the Suns evolved from a loose network of drug-trafficking groups within the Armed Forces structure into an elaborate system of patronage whose main goal is to distribute and keep the wealth of the drug trade in the hands of strategically placed military and law enforcement officers (both military and civilian), in order to keep them loyal to both the regime and to Maduro personally. Experts such as Phil Gunson at the International Crisis Group think tank also cast doubt on the label "Cartel of the Suns", arguing that while there is "abundant evidence of links between several Armed Forces commanders and drug trafficking", clear evidence which would demonstrate the central coordination of said drug trafficking by the Venezuelan government has never been presented. Writing in 2020 and 2025, Philip Johnson from Flinders University stated that the Cartel of the Suns is not a centrally coordinated cartel within the Venezuelan government but rather a loose and fragmented network of competing drug-trafficking networks within state institutions. After the capture of Maduro by the United States in January 2026, the "revised indictment" against him "abandoned the claim that Cartel de los Soles was an actual organization", and instead referred to his position atop a drug-trafficking backed "patronage system" and "culture of corruption". According to The New York Times, the new indictment "appeared to tacitly concede the point" of the experts that Cartel of the Suns does not exist as an organisation but instead serves as an umbrella term for drug-corrupted Venezuelan officials. Nevertheless, Trump administration's officials such as Marco Rubio continued to refer to the Cartel of the Suns as a drug cartel. Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group stated that "the new indictment gets it right, but the designations are still far from reality", while Jeremy McDermott of InSight Crime disputed the charge of Maduro's involvement with the Tren de Aragua cartel, arguing that it lacks evidence. ==See also==