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It's paradoxical. As Venezuela became entangled in the tentacles of Chavismo and buried itself in a decadence that seems to have no end, the Cartel de los Soles grew in infrastructure, territorial and international influence. What is not paradoxical at this point is that the power of both the regime and the narcoterrorist group centers on one person: Nicolás Maduro.
Although it was born around 1993, the cartel became a drug multinational with the rise and consolidation of Hugo Chávez and Maduro in Miraflores.
With Chávez's arrival in the Executive, the group systematized the use of state and military infrastructure of Venezuela -airports, seaports and official vehicles- to move cocaine to the Caribbean, Central America, Africa, Middle East and Europe.
In the last two decades, its growth was progressive and constant, and when the Venezuelan regime learned that in addition to receiving bribes for turning a blind eye, it could be an active and majority partner, it got fully involved, according to an investigation by the NGO InsightCrime. It was thus that during Chavismo, that same military skeleton allowed it to strengthen its ties with other criminal organizations in Latin America, such as the FARC and the ELN, in Colombia, or the Sinaloa Cartel, in Mexico.
That structure, over the years - watered by Chávez first and Maduro later - grew excessively. Involved in it were the generals of the High Military Command within the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) - with Vladimir Padrino López at the head -, Maduro himself, Diosdado Cabello, Cilia Flores and the 'narco-nephews', the Chavista intelligence agencies, judges and businessmen of power.
Currently, many of the maneuvers carried out by Maduro are aimed at facilitating the actions of this criminal organization. From the assignment of certain military personnel and magistrates to the call for elections - both state and municipal - to, at the same time, validate areas of operation and sweep away opponents who could spoil the operations.
The "elections" of mayors in the country on the past July 27 resulted in a schedule more of territorial control for illicit activities than to show any kind of democratic progress to the world, after the megafraud of July 28, 2024, where the dictatorship stole the presidential victory from Edmundo González and the Venezuelans.
This latest electoral drill served Chavismo to keep 285 of the 335 mayoralties at stake. Many of the key opposition candidates could not participate: they were arrested in early 2025. This guaranteed Maduro -and the Cartel de los Soles- key border territories for drug trafficking.
That is one of the keys to this criminal organization. The Cartel de los Soles is a major facilitator of routes for other narcoterrorist groups such as the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel or the also Venezuelan Tren de Aragua. Even Maduro's is a criminal gang that, throughout all these years, also dedicated itself to arms trafficking and money laundering.
Reward
There were two blows that Maduro received in just days. The first of them was on July 25 when the Treasury Department designated the Cartel de los Soles as "Specially Designated Global Terrorist". Scott Bessent, secretary of that North American office said: “The Treasury Department will continue to take strong action against violent organizations such as the Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and their facilitators, such as the Cartel de los Soles”. A few days later, on August 7, the United States announced that they were raising the reward for anyone who provided information that could lead to Maduro to a record value: 50 million dollars. The figure represents much more than the White House once offered for Osama Bin Laden, enemy number one and the mastermind of the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. “It's a criminal organization, which includes the various cartels operating in Mexico, Ecuador, and Guatemala”, said Marco Rubio, the American Secretary of State, referring to the Cartel de los Soles. The "reward" poster with the image of Maduro and the stamp of 50 million dollars traveled the world and aroused even more curiosity about this dictator accused of leading one of the largest drug trafficking organizations on the planet. At the same time that the Attorney General of the United States Pamela Bondi announced how much the information on the head of Maduro was worth, she reported that assets of the Venezuelan pope had also been seized for 700 million dollars. Among the confiscated items were two airplanes, several properties in Florida, mansions in Dominican Republic, a horse farm, super-luxury vehicles, jewelry, and cash. "He is one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security," said Bondi. “We will not tolerate a narco-terrorist who inflicts harm on the United States. We will treat terrorists as the United States has treated them in the past“, said Republican Senator for Ohio, Bernie Moreno. For his part, Republican Representative for Florida Carlos Giménez said: “50 million reward to whoever helps us capture the criminal dictator Nicolás Maduro. We must put an end to this assassin, the executioner of the Venezuelan nation”. A few days ago, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, also designated the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. The Ecuadorian political leader knows what he is facing: the narco-Chavista group also operates in his territory and could be one of the organizations that give life to the local mafias that have society in check.Maduro's Cartel
Internationally isolated, afraid to leave Miraflores, with popularity at its lowest levels, a critical social and economic situation, seven million Venezuelans in exile, hundreds of political prisoners and seeing ghosts at every turn, Maduro leaned even more on the military, guarantors and bearers of weapons. To this end, he grants them more and more power within the criminal organization. In short, the Cartel de los Soles dawned in the Armed Forces of Venezuela. Maduro also sought support from the leaders of the FARC to train a group of illegal militiamen who acted, in practice, as an armed wing of the Cartel de los Soles. In addition, he coordinated with drug traffickers from Honduras and other nations, facilitating large-scale trafficking operations. He led the Cartel de los Soles to supply military-grade weapons to the FARC and participated in a violent and corrupt narco-terrorism alliance with the Colombian guerrilla organization and is believed to have personally managed shipments of several tons of cocaine produced by the FARC. The international tentacles of the mafia grew as Venezuelans became impoverished and fled the country. For years, the Cartel de los Soles and its leaders assisted another famous transnational criminal: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the absolute boss of the Sinaloa Cartel and, ultimately, a partner of Maduro. Today, Guzmán is serving his sentence in the federal prison ADX Florence, in Colorado, United States. It is the safest in the country and, for many, the most impenetrable on the planet. Before being housed there forever, during the trial that followed, it was explained in detail how the Maduro Cartel assisted his organization. Among other things, the airfields in Maracaibo from which planes loaded with tons of cocaine took off towards the destinations indicated by the Sinaloa group were some of the links that could be verified during the trial against the Mexican drug trafficker in New York, based on cross-calls and key testimonies. This was documented by the United States Attorney's Office before the Eastern District Court of that city on January 20, 2017.In March 2020, another New York court - Southern District - filed charges against Maduro for conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices, as well as for possession of such weapons. He was also charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and narcoterrorism offenses.
But those were times when his head was worth $15 million. Today, that reward has risen to $50 million, the highest in the history of the United States. SOURCE: INFOBAE
