Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, other top officials charged in US drug trafficking inquiry
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
USA TODAYMarch 26, 2020, 2:55 PM EDT

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was charged with federal drug trafficking crimes as part of a far-reaching U.S. investigation involving prosecutors in New York, Washington and Miami, officials said Thursday.

Attorney General William Barr announced the extraordinary action Thursday, saying charges were filed against more than a dozen other current and former Venezuelan officials, including the country's Supreme Court chief justice and the minister of defense.

The years-long investigation, federal authorities said, revealed a government immersed in "corruption at the highest levels."

Maduro's government, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said, "betrayed the Venezuelan people ... to line their pockets with drug money."

The four-count indictment against Maduro was unsealed in New York and named Diosdado Cabello Rondón, head of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly; Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, former director of military intelligence; and Clíver Antonio Alcalá Cordones, a former general in the Venezuelan armed forces.

"The scope and magnitude of the drug trafficking alleged was made possible only because Maduro and others corrupted the institutions of Venezuela and provided political and military protection for the rampant narco-terrorism crimes described in our charges," Berman said. Maduro and other officials "expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and well being of our nation."

Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said the charges show that the Maduro regime was "propped up by a sham judiciary and a corrupt military," adding that the country's defense minister authorized regular and enormous shipments of cocaine destined for the U.S.

In conjunction with the Justice Department action, the State Department announced a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro and up to $10 million for other Venezuelan officials named in the indictment.

"These individuals violated the public trust by facilitating shipments of narcotics from Venezuela, including control over planes that leave from a Venezuelan air base, as well as control of drug routes through the ports in Venezuela," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

The payments are offered through the State Department's Narcotics Rewards Program.

For more than two decades, according to federal prosecutors, Maduro and other top leaders managed a criminal enterprise known as the Cartel de Los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) that conspired with Colombia's leftist guerrilla group known as the FARC to ship tons of cocaine to Central America and the USA.

According to court documents, the cartel not only sought to enrich its members and bolster its political clout but also to exact maximum harm on the USA by expediting cocaine shipments to American users.

Maduro and his alleged conspirators, prosecutors asserted, "abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the legitimate institutions of Venezuela," from the judiciary and intelligence agencies to the legislature and military.

As the cartel's leader, Maduro arranged for "multi-ton" shipments of FARC-produced cocaine, directed the cartel to provide military weapons to the Colombian revolutionary group and used them to train a separate militia that functioned as "an armed force" for the cartel.

The legal action against Maduro ratchets up tensions with Venezuela where the United States and more than 50 other countries have long called for Maduro's ouster and thrown their support to Juan Guaido as the country's leader..

Guaido has staunch support from the Trump administration and other top U.S. officials.

Barr, who announced the charges during a virtual news conference necessitated by travel and social distancing restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic, said the timing of the announcement had been somewhat complicated by the virus.

The attorney general, however, said the onset of the global health crisis was probably "a good time to rid the country of this corrupt cabal."

"Hopefully, the Venezuelan people will see what's going on and gain control of their country," Barr said.

Asked about the likelihood of obtaining Maduro's arrest, Barr said, "We do expect to gain control of these defendants."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro charged in drug trafficking inquiry

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Dora Hates You

That's horseshit. They're been planning this coup for awhile. When they can't get the locals to do it they cook up fake charges as a pretense to attack.

The CIA used to be the biggest coke dealer in the Americas.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

Well, , , , , Hmmmmm? Mrs Dingpatch said that she had been to Vietnam more than a hand full of times, and she talked about "body bags" there with no other comments. Kind of weird because she had a "Q" clearance and officially worked in a "Technical Support" squadron here at Patrick, although she was an actual Field Operative for "Them"!! Body bags probably did not contain bodies.?

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Dora Hates You

Edited: 03/26/2020 at 04:07 PM by dingpatch

How unChavez of them.

I'm rusty. By hook or by crook they are going to install their man.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Putin might have something to say in it.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

Seems these countries we have "issues" with, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, have one thing in common...they sitten on a lot of Oil

Our oil. Just a challenge given to us by the almighty to get it back here. Like the fake fossils that contradict genesis.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Forgot Libya,,, how dare they try to cut out big Oil, and nationalize their own oil,,,its flat out un"merikan

Will we go "Panama" on them or just perform a few Extraordinary Renditions?

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Dora Hates You

I'm thinking that we will probably just "Zero Dark Thirty" him.

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Dora Hates You

Yes, fly into a country and take their president. No problem.

Can we please get rid of these clowns in the next election? I'm talking about Barr and company, it's up to Venezuela to day away with their own president. Just think about it, when Trump loses, all of these traitorous idiots will be gone, POOF... just like that.

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I was right.

But, then again, people get up in the middle of the night to go potty and trip and fall down the stairs. Happens every night?

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Dora Hates You

Ship found with $165M worth of cocaine off Spain's coast is connected to regime of crooked Venezuelan president Maduro who has a $15m bounty on his head for trafficking cocaine into the US for two decades

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...ized-Spains-coast.html

That's what you get when you don't give the CIA their cut, , , , ,

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Dora Hates You

4.4 tons is only worth $163 million?

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I was right.

The leaders of Barbados and Martinque are also known "traffickers" to the US , but no indictment for them.. no Oil either come to think of it

The covert nation building have given the United States the schizophrenic approach of huge financial aid for some and covert assassinations with sock puppets we install in others. There was a time when I thought trump might eliminate both, the bad with the good we could get out of the business of trafficking drugs to finance puppets and murdering everyone we thought needed adjusting, but he's not in control. He doesn't understand the CIA and he's still intoxicated by their tough guy tactics. He has no regard for their mixed history and spectacular failures, he just sees them as making these countries jump when he says.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

The unfortunate thing is based on our history of intervention, the only way for a government that stands up to the USA to survive is by becoming authoritarian and having a nuclear weapons capability.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

They are all watching the Ukraine now and knowing Russia wouldn't have dared their invasion and territory theft if the Ukrainians had kept their nukes. Israel is another example.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.