Never before had a mafia received such a harsh warning from a national state as the one received by the Venezuelan Bolivarian organization from the United States. They took their capo, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife into custody, while their caporegimes left stranded in Caracas wondering what happened, only able to speak of nationalism and attempt to protest to world organizations in search of a justice they never offered their own citizens. Donald Trump accuses Nicolás Maduro of being a drug trafficker. Therefore, it is also possible that in Zulia, the envoys associated with the Sinaloa Cartel did not pay the right officials, or that these officials demanded such high sums that the route ceased to be profitable. With the start of Trump's threats, the Mexican capos decided to leave Venezuela, and that is when the total collapse of Nicolás Maduro's good fortune began, as he faces a criminal process abroad that could judge him as harshly as it happened to El Chapo Guzmán. Mexico, where it all began and where, even today, the lords of the drug rule and direct. The Sinaloa cartel's retreat from Venezuela. It is these same lords, kings in the world of organized crime, who began to leave Venezuela when they smelled that 'heat' was coming from the United States. According to the site Insightcrime.com, specialized in organized crime, the members of the Sinaloa cartel left long before the Delta Force military took Maduro and his wife to North America. The main Mexican drug trafficking networks have abandoned the Venezuelan state of Zulia, in the northwest of the country, as political changes transform criminal control. Zulia is a strategic corridor for the passage of Colombian cocaine to international markets. The town of San Felipe came to have so many envoys from one of the world's most known criminal groups—the Sinaloa Cartel—that it earned the nickname 'Sinaloa'. 'But not anymore,' a local social leader told InSight Crime. The report from Venezuelan researchers indicates that the downfall of Nicolás Maduro has only corroborated the movements of Sinaloa, to leave Venezuela because it no longer controls the state levers that allow organized crime to work comfortably. 'The Sinaloa cartel's representatives abroad usually abandon a territory once consolidated relations with local partners,' explained to InSight Crime independent security consultant David Saucedo. 'In the end, the Sinaloa cartel just becomes a buyer,' he affirmed. Faced with the impossibility of maintaining decent wages, the Maduro government secured military loyalty by allowing officers and officials to enrich themselves through bribes from drug traffickers or even by participating directly in the business. According to what the Argentine News Agency learned, in this power structure, Diosdado Cabello, current Minister of Foreign Affairs, is a key figure within the regime that has been in power from minute one because, alongside Hugo Chávez, he participated in the coup attempt against President Carlos Andrés Pérez on February 4, 1992. Of course, he is not the only one in the Bolivarian nomenclature who pulls the strings and directs the destiny of the Caribbean nation, serving the illicit activities of the real drug lords like the Sinaloa cartel. One of the most well-known traces for Argentine intelligence and politics is the former ambassador of Venezuela in Buenos Aires, Stella Lugo Betancourt de Montilla. Maduro removes Stella Lugo Betancourt from Argentina, one of the main leaders of the Bolivarian regime. The diplomat is the main link with the Iranian regime, which obtained in Venezuela a platform from which to influence the Latin American region to the chagrin of the Donald Trump administration. Lugo tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the United States from seizing an airplane that came from the Caribbean, an Airbus A340-600, identified under the logo of the state Venezuelan airline Conviasa, which in the past belonged to the Iranian company Mahan Air, and that landed in Buenos Aires in 2022, during the last Kirchnerist government, piloted by Iranian pilots suspected of belonging to the elite Quds Force. Stella Lugo Betancourt allegedly warned the suspected Quds Force Iranian pilots, 'get out of Buenos Aires as soon as possible because they can detain you,' but her pleas did not arrive in time and the Iranians spent a long time under investigation on Argentine soil. But over Lugo's figure also looms the suspicion of her connections with the narco world. In 2019, the accusations of José Luis Pirela, president of the Subcommittee on Anti-Drug, Anti-Terrorism and Organized Crime of the National Assembly (AN) of Venezuela, who denounced that an organized crime group operates from Los Roques, a national park and tourist destination located off the coast of the Venezuelan state of Vargas. But is Nicolás Maduro, the boss of a cartel like Pablo Escobar in Medellín? If a cartel is considered a criminal organization dedicated to illegal trafficking, especially of drugs or arms, and acts as a clandestine company with leaders, middlemen, and groups in charge of specific tasks that control zones, routes, and markets through intimidation, corruption, and force, it does not seem to be the precise accusation against Nicolás Maduro. Furthermore, a cartel is organized with a stable structure. In April 2021, the armed forces arrested a person they identified as a member of the Mexican group in the border state of Apure. This could have been due to active Bolivarian military who wanted to stop being mere bribe receivers to become trafficking leaders or to support Venezuelan drug trafficking substance groups instead of the Mexicans. But the conclusions of security experts coincide in pointing out that drug trafficking in Venezuela depends on corruption and the networks pay security forces and political actors to be able to operate. The US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, affirms that Maduro has been indicted in the Southern District of New York for drug and arms-related crimes and that 'he will face the full wrath of American justice on American soil and in American courts.' He is pointed to as the boss of the Cartel of the Suns. Some manage production, others ensure transport, and others watch the finances. Now, the information circulating in Venezuela is simpler but no less alarming. The so-called Cartel of the Suns is more of a methodology than a drug trafficking organization. The group uses mostly uninhabited islets for the trafficking of narcotics and gold to Caribbean countries, to then reach the European market. The report presented to the National Assembly (AN) explains that 'part of the band is formed by Carlos Betancourt and Noel Lugo, whom they identified as the cousin and brother of Stella Lugo Betancourt.' Currently, Stella Lugo Betancourt left Argentina in June 2024, before the triumph of Javier Milei, and was named the Bolivarian ambassador to Mexico, where the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, received her with open arms. This is a widespread corruption practice that has its epicenter within the Bolivarian armed forces. However, in some cases, Venezuelan authorities have attempted to dismantle their operations directly. Their bosses decide the strategy and distribute functions with precision.
