Kash Patel confirms before the Senate that there is solid evidence that Nicolás Maduro heads a terrorist organization

FBI Director Kash Patel explained Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Nicolas Maduro's regime is directly involved in international drug trafficking and that there is strong evidence that it operates as a terrorist organization. Patel pointed out that much of the cocaine arriving in the United States originates in Venezuela and is moved through routes in the Caribbean.

A narco-terrorist state

During the session, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close ally of Donald Trump, asked Patel if Maduro was running a narco-terrorist state. The FBI director backed up that claim by explaining that Venezuela is the departure point for much of the cocaine that ends up on U.S. soil, with stops in transit countries like Haiti.

Patel: "We will hunt down every single one of those narco-traffickers."

Patel also stressed that, although operations to intercept vessels in the Caribbean fall under the Department of Defense, he is fully confident that the United States acts firmly against those who try to bring drugs into its territory.

"The end-state delivery, which is the United States of America — and we will hunt down every single one of those narco-traffickers with the authority we have," he said. 

Military operation

Patel's remarks follow an operation that destroyed a vessel linked to a Venezuelan cartel and left three crew members dead.

Trump described the action as a "second kinetic strike" against criminal organizations attempting to smuggle drugs into US territory and shared a video showing the moment of the attack.