Which Venezuelan military or security units collaborate with drug trafficking networks in 2025?
Executive summary
U.S., regional press and investigative outlets report repeated links between members of Venezuela’s armed forces and drug trafficking networks — commonly labeled the “Cartel of the Suns” — but they also describe those links as fragmented, transactional and not clearly centrally coordinated by the Maduro government (see UNODC context and expert skepticism) [1] [2]. U.S. officials have directly accused senior military figures — including naming Vladimir Padrino López in a reward notice — and U.S. policy has escalated to military strikes and terrorist-style designations in 2025 [3] [4] [5].
1. Military units most frequently accused: “units that control borders, ports and airstrips”
Reporting and organized-crime research say the Venezuelan Armed Forces — particularly the formations and commanders that operate at border zones, ports, river routes and airstrips — are the state elements most often implicated in facilitating shipments, granting “safe passage,” and authorizing flights tied to trafficking [1] [6]. InsightCrime describes the “Cartel of the Suns” as groups inside the military that secure routes and authorize departures/arrivals of aircraft carrying drugs [1].
2. Named senior figures and U.S. actions: Padrino López and reward/charging language
U.S. government public materials and reporting singled out senior figures. A U.S. Department of State release tied Vladimir Padrino López to charging protection fees for drug flights — alleging protection payments routinely above $60,000 — and included a rewards notice for him [3]. The U.S. increased rewards and applied terrorist designations tied to the “Cartel of the Suns” in 2025, actions that have driven diplomatic and military tensions [4] [1].
3. How analysts describe the relationship: networks, not a single chain of command
Multiple expert sources stress that involvement looks like fragmented, profit-driven corruption rather than a single, centrally directed cartel led by the state. InSightCrime, International Crisis Group commentators and academic Philip Johnson argue evidence points to “links between several Armed Forces commanders and drug trafficking” but not to clear, centralized coordination by Maduro [4] [1]. The Guardian likewise reports that implicated government figures “did not operate as a single unit” and often competed or extorted along routes [7].
4. International and operational context: transit role, not necessarily primary producer
UNODC-based analysis and military-focused reporting emphasize Venezuela’s role is mainly transit or secondary in 2025: main cocaine flows to North America originate in Andean countries and are not primarily routed through Venezuelan ports, per the World Drug Report 2025 summarized in Military.com [2]. That assessment complicates narratives that portray Venezuela as the principal source of U.S.-bound cocaine [2].
5. U.S. response and its assumptions: strikes, designations, and contested evidence
The U.S. response escalated to naval deployments, air and maritime strikes, and new initiatives such as “Operation Southern Spear,” accompanied by public assertions that military facilities and certain Venezuelan sites sit “at the nexus” of gangs and the regime [8] [5]. Journalists and fact-checkers note the U.S. has not always published detailed evidence tying named Venezuelan facilities or officials to trafficking, and experts have cautioned about conflating individual military corruption with centralized state-run trafficking [8] [9].
6. Diverging narratives and political stakes: intelligence, lawfare and regime delegitimization
Some U.S. officials and prosecutors label the Cartel of the Suns and senior Venezuelan figures as narco-traffickers or terrorists, a framing that supports sanctions, rewards and unconventional military options [4] [10]. Critics and some analysts warn that such legal and rhetorical moves can be motivated by geopolitical aims to delegitimize the Maduro government and could exceed what the public evidence supports [4] [11].
7. What reporting does not show: centralized Maduro-run trafficking enterprise
Available sources document corruption, protection schemes, and links between specific military commanders and traffickers, but they report that clear evidence of a centrally coordinated, government-run narcotics cartel under Maduro has not been presented in a way that satisfied many independent experts [4] [1]. Not found in current reporting: definitive proof in open-source materials that Venezuelan military units act as a single, unified trafficking organization controlled top-down by Maduro [4].
Limitations and reading guidance: these conclusions rely on the cited investigative outlets, government statements and major press summaries compiled in 2025. Sources agree that military elements involved in border/port/air operations are the primary locus of alleged collaboration [1] [3], but they dispute whether this equals a centrally managed “Cartel of the Suns” [4] [2].