Thursday, May 21, 2015

Venezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub

Venezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub
By José de Córdoba and Juan Forero
Wall Street Journal
May 18, 2015
U.S. prosecutors are investigating several high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including the president of the country's congress, on suspicion that they have turned the country into a global hub for cocaine trafficking and money laundering, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the probes.
An elite unit of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington and federal prosecutors in New York and Miami are building cases using evidence provided by former cocaine traffickers, informants who were once close to top Venezuelan officials and defectors from the Venezuelan military, these people say.
A leading target, according to a Justice Department official and other American authorities, is National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, considered the country's second most-powerful man.
"There is extensive evidence to justify that he is one of the heads, if not the head, of the cartel," said the Justice Department official, speaking of a group of military officers and top officials suspected of being involved in the drug trade. "He certainly is a main target."
Representatives of Mr. Cabello and other officials didn't return phone calls and emails requesting comment. In the past, Venezuelan authorities have rejected allegations of high-ranking involvement in the drug trade as an attempt by the U.S. to destabilize the leftist government in Caracas.
In an appearance on state television Wednesday, Mr. Cabello said he solicited a court-ordered travel ban on 22 executives and journalists from three Venezuelan news outlets that he has sued for publishing stories about the drug allegations earlier this year. "They accuse me of being a drug trafficker without a single piece of evidence and now I'm the bad guy," Mr. Cabello said. "I feel offended, and none of them even said they're sorry."
The Obama administration isn't directing or coordinating the investigations, which are being run by federal prosecutors who have wide leeway to target criminal suspects. But if the probes result in publicly disclosed indictments of Mr. Cabello and others, the resulting furor in Venezuela would likely plunge relations between the two countries into their most serious crisis since the late populist Hugo Chávez took office 16 years ago.
"It would be seismic," said a U.S. official, of the expected Venezuelan reaction. "They will blame a vast right-wing conspiracy."
U.S. authorities say they are far along in their investigations. But they say any indictments that may result might be sealed, making them secret until authorities can make arrests-something that would be difficult if not impossible unless the suspects travel abroad.
The investigations are a response to an explosion in drug trafficking in the oil-rich country, U.S. officials say. Under pressure in Colombia, where authorities aggressively battled the drug trade with $10 billion in U.S. aid since 2000, many Colombian traffickers moved operations to neighboring Venezuela, where U.S. law-enforcement officials say they found a government and military eager to permit and ultimately control cocaine smuggling through the country.
"Most of the high-end traffickers moved to Venezuela in that time," said Joaquín Pérez, a Miami attorney who represents key Colombian traffickers who have acknowledged operating out of Venezuela.
Venezuela doesn't produce coca, the leaf used to make cocaine, nor does it manufacture the drug. But the U.S. estimates that nearly a third of the cocaine produced in other Andean countries, about 275 tons, now moves through Venezuela annually.
Prosecutors aren't targeting President Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power since Mr. Chávez's death two years ago. U.S. law-enforcement officials say they view several other Venezuelan officials and military officers as the de facto leaders of drug-trafficking organizations that use Venezuela as a launchpad for cocaine shipments to the U.S. as well as Europe.
'A Criminal Organization'
"It is a criminal organization," said the Justice Department official, referring to certain members of the upper echelons of the Venezuelan government and military.
Mildred Camero, who had been Mr. Chávez's drug czar until being forced out abruptly in 2005, said Venezuela has "a government of narcotraffickers and money launderers." She recently collaborated on a book, "Chavismo, Narcotrafficking and Militarism," in which she alleged that drug-related corruption had penetrated the state, naming more than a dozen officials, including nine generals, who allegedly worked with smugglers.
Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. said that they have accelerated their investigations in the past two years, a period that has seen Venezuela's economy worsen dramatically. Rampant crime has spiked, making Venezuela the continent's most violent country and spurring people to emigrate.
The deepening crisis has made it easier for U.S. authorities to recruit informants, say those working to enlist people close to top Venezuelan officials. Colombian and Venezuelan drug traffickers have also arrived in the U.S., eager to provide information on Venezuelan officials in exchange for sentencing leniency and residency, U.S. officials say.
"Since the turmoil in Venezuela, we've had greater success in building these cases," said a federal prosecutor from New York's Eastern District who works on Venezuelan cases.
In January, U.S. investigators made a major catch when naval captain Leamsy Salazar defected and was brought to Washington. Mr. Salazar, who has said he headed Mr. Cabello's security detail, told U.S. authorities that he witnessed Mr. Cabello supervise the launch of a large shipment of cocaine from Venezuela's Paraguaná peninsula, people familiar with the case say.
Mr. Cabello has publicly railed against his former bodyguard, saying he didn't head his security detail and calling him "an infiltrator" who has no proof of his involvement in drug trafficking. "Our conscience is totally clear," he said in a radio interview.
Rafael Isea is another defector who has been talking to investigators, people familiar with the matter say. A former Venezuelan deputy finance minister and governor of Aragua state, Mr. Isea fled Venezuela in 2013. People familiar with the case say Mr. Isea has told investigators that Walid Makled, a drug kingpin now in prison, paid off former Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami to get drug shipments through Venezuela.
Almost a year after leaving the country, Mr. Isea was accused of committing "financial irregularities" during his days as governor by Venezuela's attorney general, and by Mr. El Aissami, who succeeded him as governor of Aragua.
"Today, Rafael Isea, that bandit and traitor, is a refugee in Washington where he has entered a program for protected witnesses in exchange for worthless information against Venezuela," Mr. El Aissami said recently on Venezuelan television.
Mr. Isea has rejected the accusations as false, politically motivated and meant to discredit him.
In addition to Mr. El Aissami, other powerful officials under investigation include Hugo Carvajal, a former director of military intelligence; Nestor Reverol, the head of the National Guard; Jose David Cabello, Mr. Cabello's brother, who is the industry minister and heads the country's tax collection agency; and Gen. Luis Motta Dominguez, a National Guard general in charge of central Venezuela, say a half-dozen officials and people familiar with the investigations.
Calls and emails seeking comment from several government ministries as well as the president's office went unanswered. Some officials have taken to social media to ridicule the U.S. investigations. A Twitter account in the name of Gen. Motta Dominguez earlier this year said: "We all know that whoever wants his green card and live in the US to visit Disney can just pick his leader and accuse him of being a narco. DEA tours will attend to them."
Recruiting Defectors
To build cases, U.S. law-enforcement officials work with Venezuelan exiles and others to locate and recruit disaffected Venezuelans.
"We get people out of Venezuela, and we meet with them in Panama, Curaçao, Bogotá," said a former intelligence operative who works with U.S. officials to recruit and debrief Venezuelans who have evidence of links between Venezuelan officials and the drug trade.
Former Venezuelan military officers and others living outside the country provide help by contacting their former comrades and urging them to defect, the recruiter said. If the defector can provide useful information, the recruiter said, he is flown to the U.S. and a new life.
"What does the U.S. want?" said the recruiter, who has been working Venezuelan cases since 2008. "The U.S. wants proof, evidence of relations between politicians, military officers and functionaries with drug traffickers and terrorist groups."
Recently, at Washington's posh Capital Grille restaurant, a few blocks from Congress, a Venezuelan operative working with a U.S. law enforcement agency took a call from a middleman for a high-level official in Caracas seeking to trade information for favorable treatment from the U.S.
"Tell him I'll meet him in Panama next week," said the operative, interrupting a lunch of oysters and steak.
The biggest target is 52-year-old Mr. Cabello, a former army lieutenant who forged a close link in the military academy with Mr. Chávez when the two played on the same baseball team. When Mr. Chávez launched an unsuccessful 1992 coup, Mr. Cabello led a four-tank column that attacked the presidential palace in downtown Caracas.
Mr. Cabello has been minister of public works and housing, which also gave him control of the airports and ports, as well as minister of the interior and vice president. He was also president for a few hours in April 2002 when Mr. Chávez was briefly ousted in a failed coup.
Many analysts and politicians in Venezuela say they believe Mr. Cabello's power rivals that of Mr. Maduro and is rooted in his influence among Venezuela's generals.
Julio Rodriguez, a retired colonel who knows Mr. Cabello from their days at Venezuela's military academy, says that of 96 lieutenant colonels commanding battalions in Venezuela today, Mr. Cabello has close ties to 46.
The stocky and bull-necked Mr. Cabello, who often sports the standard Chavista uniform of red shirt and tri-color windbreaker in the red, yellow and blue of the Venezuelan flag, is host of a television program, "Hitting With the Sledge Hammer," on state television, in which he uses telephone intercepts of opponents to attack and embarrass them. Mr. Rodriguez said he believes Mr. Cabello will never make any kind of a deal with the U.S. "Diosdado is a kamikaze," he said. "He will never surrender."
U.S. investigators have painstakingly built cases against Venezuelan officials by using information gathered from criminal cases brought in the U.S. In Miami, people familiar with the matter say a key building block in the investigations involved a drug-smuggling ring run by Roberto Mendez Hurtado. A Colombian, Mr. Mendez Hurtado moved cocaine into Apure state in western Venezuela and, according to those familiar with his case, had met with high-ranking Venezuelan officials. The cocaine was then taken by boat or flown directly to islands in the Caribbean before reaching American shores.
Mr. Mendez Hurtado pleaded guilty in Miami federal court and received a 19-year prison term in 2014. People close to that investigation say that Mr. Mendez Hurtado and his fellow traffickers wouldn't have been able to operate without paying off a string of top military officers and government officials.
"The involvement of top officials in the National Guard and in the government of Venezuela in drug trafficking is very clear," said a former Venezuelan National Guard officer who served in intelligence and in anti-narcotics and left the country last year frightened by the overwhelming corruption he saw daily.
"Everyone feels pressured," he said. "Sooner or later everyone surrenders to drug trafficking."
In another case, in Brooklyn, prosecutors have learned about the intricacies of the drug trade in Venezuela after breaking up a cocaine-smuggling ring led by Luis Frank Tello,who pleaded guilty, court documents show. The cocaine was brought in across the border from Colombia and, with the help of National Guard officers, shipped north, sometimes from the airport in Venezuela's second-largest city, Maracaibo.
The U.S. investigations of Venezuelan officials have been going on for years, though investigators have sometimes been thwarted by politics.
In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department put three top aides to then-President Chávez on a blacklist and froze any assets they might have in the U.S. Among the three was Mr. Carvajal, known as "El Pollo," or the Chicken, then the head of military intelligence. The U.S. acted after extensive evidence surfaced earlier that year in the computers of a dead Colombian guerrilla commander of burgeoning cocaine-for-arms exchanges between the rebels and top Venezuelan generals and officials, according to the U.S. and Colombian governments.
In 2010, Manhattan prosecutors unsealed the indictment of Mr. Makled, the Venezuelan drug dealer accused of shipping tons of cocaine to the U.S. through the country's main seaport of Puerto Cabello, which he allegedly controlled. Mr. Makled, who had been captured in Colombia, boasted of having 40 Venezuelan generals on his payroll.
"All my business associates are generals," Mr. Makled said then to an associate in correspondence seen by The Wall Street Journal. "I'm telling you we dispatched 300,000 kilos of coke. I couldn't have done it without the top of the government."
DEA agents interviewed Mr. Makled in a Colombian prison as they prepared to extradite him to New York. But instead, Colombia extradited him in 2011 to Venezuela, where he was convicted of drug trafficking. This February, he was sentenced to 14 years and six months in jail.
Last July, American counter-drug officials nearly nabbed Mr. Carvajal, who had been indicted in Miami and New York on drug charges and detained in Aruba at the American government's behest. But Dutch authorities released him to Venezuela, arguing that he had diplomatic immunity.
Upon Mr. Carvajal's release, President Maduro praised the former intelligence chief as a dedicated anti-drug fighter who had set a worlds' record capturing drug capos.
The U.S. is also gathering information from bankers and financiers who handle the money for top Venezuelan officials. Since last year, people familiar with the matter say the U.S. government has revoked the visas of at least 56 Venezuelans, including bankers and financiers whose identities haven't been made public. Some have sought to cooperate with investigators in order to regain access to the U.S.
"They are flipping all these money brokers," said a lawyer who is representing two Venezuelan financiers who have had their visas revoked. "The information is coming in very rapidly.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Diosdado Cabello's head of security defects to the U.S. and accuses him of narcotrafficking

http://www.abc.es/internacional/20150127/abci-venezuela-cabello-eeuu-201501262129.html
By Emili J. Blasco
ABC.es
January 27, 2015 
With the arrival yesterday in Washington, DC, of protected witness, [Venezuelan Navy] Captain Leamsy Salazar, who until December was the head of security for Diosdado Cabello, a U.S. federal prosecutor has accelerated the preparation of a formal indictment against the number two in the Venezuelan regime. 
Salazar is the highest-ranking military officer to break ranks with chavismo and make formal accusations in the United States against senior government officials for their involvement in narcotrafficking. 
For almost 10 years, Salazar served as chief of security and as personal assistant to Hugo Chávez. After Chávez's death, Salazar went on to work for Cabello as his chief of security. 
Cartel of the Suns
According to sources close to the investigation, opened by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Salazar claims that [Cabello], the president of the National Assembly, is the head of the Cártel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) and therefore the leader of the narcostate that Venezuela became under Chávez. 
The Cartel of the Suns, primarily composed of members of the military (its name comes from the insignia worn on the uniform of Venezuelan generals), has a drug trafficking monopoly in Venezuela. The drugs are produced by the Colombian FARC [Fuerzas Revolucionarias de Colombia guerrillas] and taken to their destinations in the U.S. and Europe by Mexican cartels. Recent international figures indicate that Venezuela ships five tons of narcotics on a weekly basis. Ninety percent of the drugs produced by Colombia transits Venezuela. 
As an aide who constantly accompanied Cabello, Salazar witnessed events and conversations that incriminate the National Assembly president. Specifically, he saw Cabello giving direct orders for the departure of boats loaded with tons of cocaine; he has also provided photographs of places where mountains of dollars (sic) from narcotrafficking are stored, according to sources close to the investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 
On December 11, 2014, a shipment loaded with $10 million in cash was detained at Puerto Cabello, which is Venezuela's most important seaport. The shipment came from the United States and it is speculated that it could be a payment for drugs. A mistake within the organization probably led to its discovery and confiscation. 
Days later, in his weekly television program, rather than fueling suspicions that the money was related to drugs, Diosdado Cabello specifically accused the political opposition of being the recipient of this money, although he failed to provide any evidence. 
Cabello, who served in the military, cultivated a leadership role among members of the Armed Forces; but given Salazar's testimony and his respected record of military service, Cabello's support in the barracks may be significantly reduced. A navy captain, comparable to the army rank of colonel, Salazar has not been involved in any criminal activities, a fact that reinforces the value of his testimony. 
In his revelations, Salazar also implicates the governor of Aragua state, Tarek el Aissami, who also has links with Islamic networks, and José David Cabello, brother of the National Assembly president, who for several years served as director of SENIAT [tax agency] and minister of industry. José David Cabello is allegedly responsible for the finances of the Cartel of the Suns. Salazar mentions that [the state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela] PDVSA is a money-laundering machine (sic). PDVSA's former president from 2004 to 2014, Rafael Ramirez, was appointed in December as Venezuela's ambassador before the U.N. Security Council. 
Salazar's testimony, according to the sources cited, has ratified many of the facts already provided by Eladio Aponte to the DEA. Aponte was chief of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Venezuela; in 2012, Aponte fled to the United States as a protected witness. 
The case against Diosdado Cabello is closely linked to the indictment announced last year by federal prosecutors in New York and Miami against the [retired] Venezuelan General Hugo Carvajal, who headed the Directorate of Military Intelligence for many years. 
The announcement came as Carvajal, alias "El Pollo," was arrested in July [2014] on the Dutch island of Aruba, neighboring Venezuela, at the request of U.S. authorities, who demanded his extradition. However, Aruba gave in to pressure from the government of [Nicolás] Maduro and allowed Carvajal to return to Venezuela. Carvajal was considered to be the head of the Cartel of the Suns. Salazar's information, on the other hand, places Carvajal under Cabello. 
Regarding the links with Havana, Salazar mentioned the regular use of PDVSA aircraft to transport drugs. A son of Chávez's and a son of former Cuban ambassador in Caracas, Germán Sánchez Otero, organized these shipments. Other Cuban officials are mentioned as part of the scheme. The final destination of these shipments was the United States. 
The sources related with this investigation speculate that Sánchez Otero, closely associated with Chávez, was removed from the post of ambassador following the discovery of a briefcase on one of these flights, which proved embarrassing for the Castro regime. The ambassador's son was arrested on one occasion when we traveled alone, while Chávez's son underwent treatment for substance abuse.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Treasure Targets Venezuelan - Washington DC

The US government is doing the right thing here. These Venezuelans were helping FARC that is a Colombian terrorist group. Actually where are the OAS - Organization of American States? Why they NEVER say something important, on favor of Justice, Human Rights violations, corruption, narcotraffics, etc. Sad.........
vdebate reporter
Treasury Targets Venezuelan Government Officials Supporting the FARC
Washington, DC
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of ForeignAssets Control (OFAC) today designated two senior Venezuelan governmentofficials, Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios and Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, andone former official, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, for materially assisting thenarcotics trafficking activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia(FARC), a narco-terrorist organization.
"Today's designation exposes two senior Venezuelan government officials and one former official who armed, abetted, and funded the FARC, even as itterrorized and kidnapped innocents," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of OFAC."
This is OFAC's sixth action in the last ten months against the FARC.
We will continue to target and isolate those individuals and entities that aid the FARC's deadly narco-terrorist activities in the Americas."
Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios is the Director of Venezuela's MilitaryIntelligence Directorate (DGIM). His assistance to the FARC includes protecting drug shipments from seizure by Venezuelan anti-narcotics authorities and providing weapons to the FARC, allowing them to maintain their strong hold of the coveted Arauca Department.
Arauca, which is located on theColombia/Venezuela border, is known for coca cultivation and cocaine production.
Carvajal Barrios also provides the FARC with official Venezuelan government identification documents that allow FARC members to travel to and from Venezuela with ease.
Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, the Director of Venezuela's Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services or DISIP, is in charge of intelligence and counter intelligence activities for the Venezuelan government.
Rangel Silva has materially assisted the narcotics trafficking activities of the FARC. He has also pushed for greater cooperation between the Venezuelan government and theFARC.
Ramon Emilio Rodriguez Chacin, who was Venezuela's Minister of Interior andJustice until September 8, is the Venezuelan government's main weapons contact for the FARC. The FARC uses its proceeds from narcotics sales to purchase weapons from the Venezuelan government. Rodriguez Chacin has held numerous meetings with senior FARC members, one of which occurred atthe Venezuelan government's Miraflores Palace in late 2007.
Rodriguez Chacin has also assisted the FARC by trying to facilitate a $250 million dollar loan from the Venezuelan government to the FARC in late 2007.
We cannot confirmwhether the loan materialized.
On May 29, 2003, President George W. Bush identified the FARC as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker, or drug kingpin, pursuant to the KingpinAct.
In 2001, the State Department designated the FARC as a SpeciallyDesignated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, and in 1997 asa Foreign Terrorist Organization.
This OFAC action continues ongoing efforts under the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations worldwide.
In addition to the 75 drug kingpins that have been designated by the President, 460 businesses and individuals have been designated pursuant to the Kingpin Act since June 2000.
Today's action freezes any assets the designated entities and individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions involving those assets.
Penalties for violations ofthe Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1,075,000 per violation tomore severe criminal penalties.
Criminal penalties for corporate officers mayinclude up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $5,000,000. Criminal fines forcorporations may reach $10,000,000.
Other individuals face up to 10 years inprison for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code.For a complete list of the individuals and entities designated today, please visit:
To view previous OFAC actions directed against the FARC, please visit:
Treasury Action against the FARC on July 31, 2008
(link:http://www.treas/.gov/press/ releases/ hp1096.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on May 7, 2008
(link:http://www.treas/. gov/press/ releases/ hp966.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on April 22, 2008
(link:http://www.treas/. gov/press/ releases/ hp938.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on January 15, 2008
(link:http://www.treas/. gov/press/ releases/ hp762.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on November 1, 2007
(link:http://www.treas/. gov/press/ releases/ hp661.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on September 28, 2006
(link:http://www.treas/. gov/press/ releases/ hp119.htm)
Treasury Action against the FARC on February 19, 2004
(link:http://www.ustreas/. gov/press/ releases/ js1181.htm)

Labels: , , , , , ,