Although the Cartel de los Soles and its alleged leader, Nicolás Maduro, were indicted in March 2020, a series of events, evidence, and confessions have now solidified the case against them currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In March 2020, the U.S. prosecution charged Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal Barrios, Cliver Alcalá Cordones, Luciano Marín Arango alias “Iván Márquez”, and Seuxis Paucis Hernández Solarte alias “Jesús Santrich” with narcoterrorism, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
Likewise, Tareck El Aissami, who has now fallen from grace within chavismo yet had been part of the chavista elite for years, and his frontman, Samark López Bello, were charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). At that time, the criminal behavior of the chavista regime was laid bare.
By 2024, Cliver Alcalá Cordones partially admitted to supplying weapons to the FARC — but denied drug trafficking charges — and received a 21-year prison sentence. However, it was in June 2025 when a significant event took place that corroborated all accusations by U.S. justice against Maduro and his regime: Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal pled guilty to all narcoterrorism charges against him. This shattered the chavista narrative that denied the existence of the Cartel de los Soles and its narcoterrorist activities.
Moreover, the designation of the Cartel de los Soles and the Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations and global terrorists by the U.S. government disconnects these criminal organizations from mere drug trafficking and frames them as agents of the Maduro regime dedicated to narcoterrorism.
Investigations Confirm Criminal Activity
A set of investigations undertaken internationally revealed the transnational structure of the Tren de Aragua — involving drug trafficking, human smuggling, arms dealing, and capital repatriation to Venezuela — as well as the connections between the Cartel de los Soles and these criminal networks.
The investigations also established links and activity with Mexican cartels, money laundering networks, the modes of drug production and distribution, and the narcotrafficking routes in operation. This all positioned the Cartel de los Soles with its own value chain by controlling production, transportation, and distribution, as well as money laundering and capital repatriation.
The Indictment in New York Court
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the previously mentioned members of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, with him at the helm, were indicted for narcoterrorism, cocaine importation, and related firearms offenses.
The indictment details a conspiracy that spanned two decades between the Cartel de los Soles in Venezuela and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, in which the accused are said to have facilitated the trafficking of tons of cocaine into the United States and to have used and possessed military-grade firearms related to these activities, intending to flood the U.S. with drugs as a “weapon.”
The charges include:
Conspiracy of narcoterrorism (Charge One): participation in a corrupt and violent conspiracy between the Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles and the FARC from at least 1999 to 2020.
Conspiracy to import cocaine (Charge Two): conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
Possession of machine guns and destructive devices (Charge Three): possessing, using, and carrying firearms (machine guns and destructive devices) in relation to drug trafficking offenses.
Conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices (Charge Four): conspiring to commit the offenses of firearms possession.
The indictment also seeks the seizure of assets obtained through criminal activities and any property used to facilitate these offenses.
Means and Methods of the Conspiracy
The indictment asserts that the conspiracy was carried out using the following means and methods:
Relocation of FARC Operations in Venezuela:
Starting in 1999, the FARC agreed to relocate some of their operations to Venezuela under the protection of the Cartel de los Soles.
Cocaine Cultivation and Processing:
FARC members cultivated coca leaves in Colombia and Venezuela.
Trafficking Routes:
The processed cocaine was shipped from Venezuela to the United States through transshipment points in the Caribbean and Central America. Fast boats, fishing vessels, and container ships were used at sea, along with clandestine airstrips, typically of dirt or grass, mainly in the state of Apure.
Corruption and Bribery:
Bribes were paid to Venezuelan officials (including Maduro, Cabello, Carvajal, and Alcalá) to ensure the safe passage of cocaine shipments, gain access to commercial ports, and radar data.
Operation Coordination:
The leaders of the Cartel de los Soles (Maduro, Cabello, Carvajal, Alcalá) coordinated with the FARC to transport and distribute cocaine, provide armed security, sell cocaine previously seized for millions of dollars, interfere in investigations and criminal cases, and supply military-grade weapons to the FARC.
Key Events in the Narcoterrorism Conspiracy
The indictment outlines numerous specific acts:
2003: Payment of USD 300,000 to “Jesus Santrich” to establish a FARC camp to process cocaine in Apure, Venezuela.
2005: Hugo Chávez instructed Maduro and others to remove Venezuelan judges who did not protect the FARC and their activities. The Venezuelan government ended its participation in bilateral anti-drug operations with the DEA.
2006: The FARC paid Maduro USD 5 million in drug profits. Maduro agreed to launder millions of dollars for the FARC by purchasing palm oil extraction equipment from Malaysia to support plantations that appeared legitimate.
The Cartel de los Soles shipped a 5.6-ton cocaine load on a U.S.-registered DC-9 from Venezuela to Mexico, where it was seized.
2008: Chávez agreed with “Iván Márquez” to use PDVSA funds to support the FARC’s narcotrafficking and terrorist operations.
Maduro, Cabello, and Carvajal met with a FARC representative, agreeing that the Cartel de los Soles would provide cash and weapons in exchange for increased cocaine production. Maduro committed to using his authority as foreign minister to keep the Venezuelan-Colombian border open for drug trafficking.
Cabello, Carvajal, and Alcalá met to coordinate narcotrafficking activities between the Cartel de los Soles and the FARC.
2009: Maduro, Cabello, and Carvajal met with a FARC representative to discuss a four-ton cocaine shipment. Cabello instructed the delivery of the cocaine and warned that instability in Honduras (after a coup) could “screw up the business.” Maduro traveled to Honduras to attempt to intervene on behalf of the Cartel de los Soles.
September 2013: After Maduro assumed the presidency, the Cartel de los Soles shipped 1.3 tons of cocaine on a commercial flight from Maiquetía Airport to Paris, where it was seized.
Maduro canceled a trip to the UN and reprimanded Cabello and Carvajal for using Maiquetía Airport for drug trafficking, urging them to use “their other established drug routes and locations.”
Maduro and others authorized arrests of Venezuelan military personnel to divert public and police attention from their own involvement in the shipment.
2014: Maduro met with “Iván Márquez” at a military base in Caracas, agreeing to continue supplying arms to the FARC and seeking help to train an armed militia group in Venezuela, assuring that he would not be associated with the government to “offer plausible deniability.”
July 2014: Maduro, Cabello, and other members of the Cartel de los Soles pressured Aruba and the Dutch government to release Carvajal Barrios, even deploying “Venezuelan naval assets toward Aruba.”
2015: Members of the Cartel de los Soles diverted Venezuelan military equipment to the FARC. Cabello Rondón “personally participated in the delivery of machine guns, ammunition, and rocket launchers to the FARC,” discussing that the arms were a partial payment for cocaine.
October-November 2015: Efraín Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas (relatives of Nicolás Maduro) agreed in recorded meetings with DEA confidential sources to dispatch cocaine shipments from Maduro’s “presidential hangar” at Maiquetía Airport. They explained they were in “war” with the United States and sought to raise USD 20 million in drug profits to support a campaign for Venezuela’s first lady (Maduro’s wife and their aunt). They were convicted in 2016.
2017: Maduro continued directing the shipment of large cocaine loads to the U.S. Cabello and others facilitated air shipments of tons of cocaine to clandestine airstrips in Barinas state, where armed FARC personnel received the drugs.
2017-2018: “Jesús Santrich” agreed to supply cocaine to DEA confidential sources for import into the U.S., collaborating with associates of Rafael Caro Quintero, a Mexican drug trafficker.
June 2018: Colombian authorities arrested “Jesús Santrich” at the request of the U.S., but he was released and is now a fugitive.
July 2019: Maduro and Cabello attended a press conference where Maduro stated that the FARC, particularly “Iván Márquez” and “Jesús Santrich,” were “welcome in Venezuela.”
August 2019: “Iván Márquez,” alongside “Jesús Santrich,” announced in a video that the FARC was initiating a “new phase” of its “armed struggle,” characterizing it as a “continuation of the rebel fight.”
Vea en Sin Filtros “IMMINENT Overthrow of the Cartel de los Soles and reconstruction of Venezuela”: