FBI targets Cartel de Los Soles, linked to Nicolás Maduro

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will increase its resources to investigate the Cartel de los Soles, according to anonymous sources revealed to The New York Post. Of Venezuelan origin, federal authorities claim the criminal group is intertwined with dictator Nicolas Maduro.

In its public filing on Nicolás Maduro Moros (Caracas, 1962), the Department of Justice (DOJ) assures that the Venezuelan president "helped manage and ultimately lead" the criminal gang, "comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials."

His ties to the cartel were the basis of a lawsuit filed by the DOJ in New York in 2020. In that one, investigators explain that the name alludes to the insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officers: a sun.

"Maduro Moros and the other charged Cartel members abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the legitimate institutions of Venezuela—including parts of the military, intelligence apparatus, legislature, and the judiciary—to facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine into the United States," the DOJ asserted on that occasion, during Trump's first term.

It also distributed an organizational chart with alleged cartel members, showing Maduro at the top, flanked by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Maikel Moreno. Under the name of the Venezuelan leader, there was a $15 million reward. Earlier this year, it was raised to $25 million.

According to the latest revelations, the Cartel de Los Soles will once again be in Trump's crosshairs. But not only that: according to sources consulted by the Post, the FBI will also investigate anyone who has "dirty business" with Maduro.

Another source assured the newspaper that the agency's goal is to bring down the "entire financial system and organization" of the group. "It’s a huge pillar of the America First movement and making America safe. Close the border, get the criminals out, shut down the drug flow, and make sure they don’t come back," he argued.

The reports reveal a new government onslaught against the Chavista regime and drug cartels. Another Venezuelan gang, the Tren de Aragua, were added along with seven other criminal gangs to the State Department's global terrorist list in February.