Narcosobrinos affair

The word Narcosobrinos is the word narco, meaning "drug dealer", followed by sobrinos, which translates to "nephews". Its translation could therefore be "drug dealer nephews". The term derived from the media which focused on the relation of drug dealing charges to President Maduro's nephews. ==Background==

showing multiple drug flights to Haiti According to Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post, the Bolivarian government of Venezuela shelters "one of the world's biggest drug cartels". There have been allegations of former president Hugo Chávez being involved with drug trafficking. In May 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported from United States officials that drug trafficking in Venezuela increased significantly with Colombian drug traffickers moving from Colombia to Venezuela due to pressure from law enforcement. One United States Department of Justice official described the higher ranks of the Venezuelan government and military as "a criminal organization", with high ranking Venezuelan officials being accused of drug trafficking. At a presentation at the XXXII International Conference on Drugs in 2015, commander of the United States Southern Command General John Kelly stated that though relations with other Latin American nations countering drug trafficking has been good, Venezuela was not as cooperative and that "there's a lot of cocaine leaving Venezuela to the world market". General Kelly also stated that almost all shipments of cocaine using aircraft comes out of Venezuela and that since 2013 to early-2014, the route of drug trafficking aircraft has changed from heading to Central America to primarily traveling through Caribbean islands. The Narcosobrinos incident happened at a time when multiple high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government were being investigated for their involvement of drug trafficking, including Walter Jacobo Gavidia, Cilia Flores' son who is a Caracas judge, former National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and Governor of Aragua State Tarek El Aissami. ==Series of events==

Preparation and DEA monitoring Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas were involved in illicit activities such as drug trafficking and possibly financially assisted President Maduro's presidential campaign in the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election and potentially for the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary elections. One informant stated that the two would often fly out of Terminal 4 of Simon Bolivar Airport, a terminal reserved for the president. On 3 October 2015, a confidential DEA informant known as CW-1 and his employee "El Flaco" were contacted by a Venezuelan contact known as "Hamudi" who introduced Campo and Flores to the informant. with DEA informants The next day on 4 October 2015, the two flew from Venezuela to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with nephews stating that they would use their connections to send narcotics on legal flights from Caracas, Venezuela to Roatán, Honduras, knowing that their relation to the president "would open doors for the smuggling operation". rocket launcher In late-October, CS-1, who presented himself as a Mexican drug boss and CS-2, presenting himself as an associate of CS-1, flew to Caracas, Venezuela to meet with the nephews. The jet was a Cessna Citation 500 that belonged to Lebanese Venezuelan businessmen Majed and Khaled Khalil Majzoun, who were linked to old projects of the Hugo Chávez government and close to high ranking Venezuelan politician Diosdado Cabello. CS-1 met with the nephews at a restaurant of a hotel near Toussaint Louverture International Airport and was supposed to pay them $5 million for the cocaine. Due to the extradition process, New York courts could not apprehend those who assisted the nephews on their way to Haiti, Roberto de Jesús Soto García On 28 October 2016, a Honduran man, Roberto de Jesús Soto García, was arrested in Honduras and extradited to the United States. According to authorities, Soto García was responsible for transporting drug shipments from Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport. Soto García provided information about the port and was supposed to take the drugs from the nephews into the United States. Aircraft pilot In June 2016, Yazenky Antonio Lamas Rondón, the pilot of the plane which transported the cocaine and the two nephews, was arrested at the El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, Colombia after the DEA and Interpol put out a warrant for his arrest. According to the DEA, Lamas Rondón piloted over 100 flights over the span of a decade from Venezuela which trafficked various drugs throughout Latin America. He is also believed to be involved with the Cartel of the Suns, a group of corrupt drug trafficking Venezuelan officials. Trial The nephews originally plead not guilty to the charges of conspiring to transport cocaine into the United States, with the two facing up to life in prison. In trial papers filed on 1 July 2016, the nephews stated that they were not informed of their rights when detained, attempting to suppress their statements that they made to DEA agents after their arrest. On 18 November 2016, the jury reached a verdict finding the two nephews guilty of attempting to traffic drugs into the United States. Murdered informants Two informants that observed the nephews were murdered shortly before and after their arrest, raising concerns that the drug trafficking operation was larger than suspected. Two weeks before the nephews were arrested, the Venezuelan known as "Hamudi" who introduced the nephews to CW-1 was murdered by FARC suppliers. Weeks after the arrests in December 2015, CW-1 was murdered as well. It is thought to be that the nephews were not "the brains" of the trafficking attempt but were working under the Cartel of the Suns. The murdering of informants was a possible way to cover possible involvement by Venezuelan officials. In the United States, the punishment for killing a witness is a federal offense punishable by up to life in prison or execution. Prisoner exchange In October 2022, Campos and Flores were released and repatriated to Venezuela as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. government. In exchange, five Venezuelan-American directors of the oil refinery company CITGO—collectively known as the Citgo Six—were released from prison in Venezuela. These directors had been detained on charges related to allegedly signing an agreement deemed "unfavorable" to the Venezuelan subsidiary. ==Media coverage==

International media focused on the events surrounding the nephews and their trial while Venezuelan media was largely censored from revealing that the two were related to the President Maduro and his wife. Venezuelan media organizations like Globovisión and Últimas Noticias only mentioned that "two Venezuelans" were charged with drug trafficking without showing any relation to the president's family, raising accusations of self-censorship. Social media, which is popular in Venezuela, was used by journalists as a way to allow Venezuelans to bypass censorship and provide updates about the situation surrounding the president's nephews. ==Reactions==

Academics and scholars According to drug trafficking expert, Bruce Bagley of the University of Miami, "The nephews are just the tip of the iceberg ... Corruption is rampant in power circles in Venezuela. This case suggests a culture that drug trafficking is routine and daily fare for someone with contacts in the presidential palace", with Bagley further stating that "With their connections, they felt they would skate through ... They made a mistake because when the DEA heard their names they targeted them." Government of Venezuela After Maduro's nephews were apprehended by the DEA for the illegal distribution of cocaine on 10 November 2015, Maduro posted a statement on Twitter criticizing "attacks and imperialist ambushes" which was viewed by many media outlets as being directed towards the United States. When they were detained, then President Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, accused the United States of "kidnapping" her nephews and said she had proof they were kidnapped by the DEA. Diosdado Cabello, a senior official in Maduro's government who has been accused of drug trafficking himself, was also quoted as saying the arrests were a "kidnapping" by the United States. Roberto de Jesús Soto Garcia, a Honduran man who provided assistance to the smugglers, has been linked to Venezuela's Vice President Tareck El Aissami. Following the arrest of the nephews, Associated Press correspondent Hannah Dreier was detained by SEBIN agents. Dreier said she was interrogated and threatened, and that the agents stated they wanted to exchange Dreier for the arrested nephews. == See also ==