WHEN Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro stood shackled before lawmakers at New York’s federal court, he blasted his “kidnapping” by US special forces and defiantly insisted: “I am a decent man.”
But the socialist despot is accused of running a ruthless South American cartel responsible for exporting 75 per cent of the cocaine smuggled into Europe and the UK, as well as the US.
Narco terrorism expert Cesar Alvarez says ‘Cartel of the Suns’ gang, which the tyrant is accused of propping up, is making up to $1billion a year from a secret drug trafficking operation – at the same time as production has been ramped up to record levels in neighbouring Colombia.
His comments come after Maduro was captured inside his heavily fortified Fuerte Tiuna compound in the capital Caracas then put on trial for ‘narco terrorism’ as part of ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ ordered by US President Donald Trump.
Cesar, a fellow with the Innovation for Development Foundation, fears his ousting will lead to a frenzy of violence – and a rise in the street price of cocaine – as underlings battle for control.
He told The Sun: “The head of one of the largest drug trafficking organisations in the world has just been captured and that will lead to a power struggle internally as everyone battles for a piece of the pie.
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“In the short term, if that leads to the disruption of logistical operations and violence – as I think likely – history tells us there will be an immediate spike in the price of cocaine.
“Right now, there is a 90 per cent chance that the coke consumed in Australia, Europe and the UK was produced in Colombia and there is a 75 per cent chance that it passed the Venezuelan border before being smuggled to Amsterdam through West Africa.
“So we are talking about an increase in prices, which for cocaine users is not good news.”
Alvarez spent five years working for the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime, before he moved to Australia, where he lectures at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, so he is well-qualified to comment on Maduro’s past.
On whether he is guilty of the charges he faces in the US, he added: “It has been well-documented from open-source investigations that he is involved in drug trafficking operations.
“To be blunt, he is a drug trafficker and – although this must be proven in court – I can say with confidence that he has been running The Cartel of the Suns for more than 12 years.
“Recent reports suggest that the cartel is making between USD $600m and USD $1bn a year from cocaine trafficking, but the exact number is hard to find.
“We are talking about black money that moves through dark tunnels and is flowing through financial systems and has been put in gold.
“What we can say for sure is that cocaine production has been consistently growing since 2015.
“We are already above 300,000 hectares of coca production in Colombia, which is about four times the size of London’s Metropolitan area.
“They are making more money than ever before because there is more coca than ever before and most of it is being smuggled through Venezuela.
“There is no previous record of this level of cultivation and production ever in Colombian and Latin American history.”
‘Cocaine as a lifeline’
The Venezuelan state’s involvement in the narco trade traces all the way back to cartel boss Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror, according to experts.
His 1993 death at the hands of Colombian special forces backed by DEA agents, who tracked him to his hideout in his home city Medellin, led to a power vacuum that was quickly filled by guerilla groups linked to Maduro’s firebrand predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
After seizing power in 1999, former military officer Chavez found there was easy money to be made co-operating with revolutionary groups FARC and ELN, which were exporting cocaine to fund their war effort.
The drug profits patched up the holes in Venezuela’s ailing economy, with oil production plummeting from 3.4million barrels per day to less than one million per day as a result of corruption and incompetence.
When Chavez died in 2013, the country was already in a mess, but under Maduro’s watch it became a disaster zone with hyperinflation hitting 1.7million per cent by 2018, making the bolivar currency worthless.
Maduro is alleged to have held on to power by allying himself with terrifying criminal groups such as the Tren de Aragua gang, which started in a Venezuelan prison in 2013 and has spread its tentacles across the world, with its first pink cocaine and MDMA dealing outpost in Europe busted in Spain recently.
Alvarez added: “For Chavez and Maduro, getting involved in the drugs trade was a no-brainer.
“They had full control of the armed forces and ideological sympathy with drug traffickers in Colombia, so why shouldn’t they take the chance to put their hands on such a big pie?
“The Venezuelan government had to find another lifeline as from an ideological, socialist point of view, they were doing a fantastic job bringing the country to ruin.
The collectivos are hitmen
Cesar Alvarez
“Cocaine became a lifeline to sustain not only their own apparatus, but also all the proxy armed forces called collectivos, which are urban armies controlling the population.
“The collectivos are hitmen. They are running extortion on behalf of the government and drug trafficking remains one of the most reliable and profitable sources of revenue for criminals.”
Europe under threat
Venezuelan politician Juan Miguel Matheus, who lives in exile, also accuses Maduro of running a “gangster state.”
He says the 2015 arrest of first lady Cilia Flores’ nephews Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 30, and Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, 29, for trafficking 800kg of coke into the States is evidence of “a direct connection between Maduro’s family circle and the drug-trafficking business.”
Writing in the Journal of Democracy, he added: “Generals are overseeing trafficking routes and shipments, ministers and governors control ports, airports, and borders, intelligence officers safeguard operations and eliminate “obstacles.”
“And diplomats are facilitating connections with international criminal networks while providing political protection.
“The Venezuelan Navy guarantees the departure of the cartel’s shipments to the United States and Europe, and flights to Central America and Mexico take off from both regular and irregular airstrips operating under military protection.
“The Cartel of the Suns supplies mafias operating in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, increasing urban violence, money laundering, and political corruption across the continent.
“For this reason, the tentacles of the Cartel of the Suns pose a serious security threat for Europe. Its ports and cities have been penetrated by a transnational crime ring backed by a Latin American state.”
Maduro’s capture
Underlining the cost of having a gangster for president, Venezuela today has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with 40.9 murders for every 100,000 people living there.
The security forces alone are blamed for six killings a day and armed groups were in evidence again following Maduro’s capture last weekend, with militias taking to the streets to crush any hint of an uprising.
Security analyst Agnieszka Palutkiewicz said: “Venezuela is home to an estimated 40 to 50 megabandas, large hierarchical criminal groups, each comprising at least 50 members.
“As well as the megabandas, a number of smaller criminal groups also engage in drug trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping countrywide.
“Pervasive corruption among politicians and within law enforcement agencies, as well as the symbiotic relationship between high-level police authorities and gang members, exacerbate challenges in addressing organised crime.
“For example, colectivos (armed groups supporting President Maduro) operate with the approval of the government, granting them significant impunity for their often-violent activities.
“Maduro’s introduction of zonas de paz (‘peace zones’) in 2013 has further increased opportunities for organised criminal actors to expand their activities.
“In these zones, created in exchange for the promise that gangs operating in these areas will disarm, help maintain the peace, and cease any illegal activities, security forces can maintain no permanent presence and can only enter under certain conditions.
“But the lack of police intervention in these locations has allowed megabandas to grow their criminal governance, dominate local populations, recruit more members and reap larger profits from extortion and kidnappings.”
Terror expert Alvarez says Trump’s repeated drone strikes on drug vessels leaving Venezuela is another factor disputing the narco trade.
But he fears the US will struggle to win the war on drugs as long as current Colombia president Gustavo Petro – who has also faced trafficking allegations – is still in charge.
Alvarez said: “Reducing the amount of drugs being imported is a huge task. For Trump to achieve that, we will have to see a change in government in Colombia because that country is producing and smuggling more cocaine than ever before.
“However, deterrence is an important concept and if you look at the 20 plus drone attacks on the semi—submersibles and speed boats filled with drugs, that is a huge success because clearly, if you are in charge of running distribution you will have to think, should I continue to risk sending people to their deaths?”
