OPINION — It is the responsibility of the U.S. Government to ensure that illicit drugs do not enter the U.S. and to ensure that those countries and narcotraffickers involved in the illicit drug business are prevented from bringing these illicit drugs into the U.S., for the sole purpose of inflicting harm on our people and enriching themselves.
In 2024, about 73 million Americans aged 12 and above reported using an illicit drug, with 28.2 million Americans having a drug use disorder. In 2023, over 587,000 Americans in this age group had a heroin use disorder and by 2024, about 1.3 million Americans had a cocaine use disorder. Clearly, the U.S. has a drug problem that’s principally affecting our younger generation.
Heroin, Fentanyl (using precursor chemicals and equipment largely from companies in China) and Methamphetamine comes principally from Mexico, with Colombia producing most of the cocaine, smuggled into the U.S. via maritime routes or overland through Central America and Mexico into the U.S.
Venezuela does not produce large quantities of cocaine, but it is in key air and sea routes (to the Caribbean or Atlantic coast) used by the Colombian trafficking organizations, like the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group) and other dissident groups and independent drug cartels. This has made Venezuela a significant hub for drug trafficking, principally for Colombian cocaine destined for the U.S., Europe or West Africa.
In 2005, then President Hugo Chavez expelled the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from Venezuela, claiming DEA was using counter-narcotics for intelligence collection purposes. This allegation was obviously false, but it then permitted Venezuela to traffic in drugs with literally no U.S. oversight.
The U.S. Government has indicted several Venezuelan generals and other high-ranking military officials deeply involved in international drug trafficking, primarily facilitating cocaine shipments from Colombia through Venezuela. The U.S. Government has named these military affiliated groups the “Cartel of the Suns” and designated it a terrorist organization in 2025.
As of October 24, a tenth vessel was attacked by the Trump administration. The vessel allegedly was carrying illicit narcotics and drug smugglers from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a terrorist organization.
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The U.S. works with Mexico and Columbia – and others -- on several counternarcotics programs, to include monitoring and eliminating the organized criminal groups (narcotraffickers) that deal with these drugs and (coca) plant eradication efforts, to name just a few counternarcotic joint efforts with partner countries. The DEA is the principal U.S. agency responsible for these programs, aided by the State Department, the military and the Intelligence Community, working closely with host country law enforcement and military entities.
The U.S. works closely with Mexico, Columbia, Peru and Bolivia, and the Central American countries that these illicit drugs transit as they find their way to the U.S. These countries – and others -- have an obligation to ensure that these drugs are not moved to the U.S. via air or sea routes.
Indeed, that is what we are witnessing with the Venezuelan vessels the U.S. has destroyed. It was Venezuela that expelled the DEA in 2005 to ensure there was no cooperation with the U.S. on counternarcotics programs; and it should now be clear that a number of Venezuelan generals – Cartel of the Suns – were and are complicit with these drug shipments to the U.S. Their apparent goal is to enrich themselves and weaken our society.
The U.S. must do more to ensure that these drug cartels are defeated. The Trump Administration’s emphasis on counternarcotics operations is commendable. Hopefully, we will continue to make counternarcotics a high priority for the U.S.
This column by Cipher Brief Expert Joseph Detrani was first published in The Washington Times.
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