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Venezuelan international gang
Available reporting shows Venezuela is primarily cited as a transit route for cocaine and other drugs, not as a major producer of fentanyl destined for the United States; U.S. and independent analysts...
Venezuelan-linked smugglers use fast, open-hulled fishing skiffs—commonly called go-fast boats—to ferry cocaine and other contraband to nearby Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and hops across the Ea...
Venezuelan-linked traffickers have been implicated in maritime flows across both the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, using coastal hubs like Sucre and Margarita Island and routes toward the Eastern Car...
Publicly available U.S. government assessments and independent reporting show no proof that Venezuela is a major manufacturer or primary source of the fentanyl killing people in the United States; U.S...
Venezuela is widely described by analysts and governments as a transit state for cocaine rather than a primary producer of fentanyl, and U.S. policy in 2025 centered on lethal maritime strikes and thr...
Venezuela is a hub where foreign cartels, Colombian guerrillas, large local gangs (“megabandas”) and alleged networks of corrupt security officials intersect; reporting identifies cocaine as the princ...
Available reporting describes “go‑fast” boats as relatively small, high‑speed smuggling vessels capable of carrying large drug loads and crews; one recent U.S.–targeted vessel was described as “on the...
Venezuelan-linked traffickers use maritime corridors from Venezuela’s Caribbean coast — including Sucre, Falcón and Margarita Island — to send cocaine to the Eastern Caribbean (islands such as Martini...
U.S. prosecutors and federal investigators have pursued multiple Venezuela-related money-laundering, corruption and narco-terrorism prosecutions that have touched high-level Venezuelan officials and i...
ICE carried out multiple large, militarized immigration operations in Chicago this fall as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” detaining dozens in high‑profile raids such as a South Shore apartment swee...
Venezuela functions largely as a transit and secondary route for cocaine headed to the United States and other markets; U.S. estimates in 2020 put 200–250 metric tons of cocaine transiting Venezuela a...
Boats have long been a key tool in the movement of illicit drugs from South America, and reporting shows Venezuelan coastal towns and criminal groups are part of that maritime ecosystem — but the pict...
There is no credible reporting in the documents provided that any sitting or former U.S. senator has been criminally charged or convicted for taking money from Venezuelan cartels; major reporting inst...
Available reporting shows the U.S. government has repeatedly asserted that specific boats off Venezuela were involved in narcotics smuggling and has released video and public statements to justify str...
U.S. forces have carried out repeated lethal strikes on small boats linked by the Trump administration to drug trafficking off and near Venezuela since early September 2025; reporting counts more than...
U.S. strikes on small vessels that Washington says were tied to Venezuelan drug networks began in early September 2025 and have been reported in the Caribbean Sea and, more recently, the eastern Pacif...
There is no reporting in the provided sources that accuses Rep. (now Sen.) Adam Schiff of taking money from Venezuelan drug cartels; campaign-donor records and mainstream coverage discuss Schiff’s spo...
Available reporting shows the U.S. has conducted multiple lethal strikes on boats the administration said were linked to drug trafficking off or near Venezuela since 2022; journalism and official stat...
U.S. sanctions since 2024–2025 have escalated from targeted financial measures to terrorism designations that block U.S. assets and authorize secondary pressure on foreign banks, while the EU and othe...
The available materials do provide a reliable, up-to-date count of how many people in the United States are members of Tren de Aragua; open-source summaries note the group’s transnational reach but st...