Cartel of the Suns (, ) is an umbrella term used to describe an alleged loose drug trafficking network or networks of cells also participating in other related criminal activity including illegal mining and smuggling of sanctioned resources and laundering of illicit profits involving members of the Bolivarian Venezuelan Government, the Armed Forces and Intelligence Service, including high-ranking officers and political officials. Experts studying the drug trade do not use the term to refer to a single hierarchical organization or a literal drug cartel, but as journalistic shorthand for an informal system of corruption by which military and political officials profit by working with drug traffickers.
The term Cartel of the Suns was first used in 1993 as a journalistic label following a political scandal involving Venezuelan military officials who were implicated in a CIA plot to smuggle cocaine into the United States in order to infiltrate Colombian cartels. The term was inspired by the "soles" (sun emblems) on Venezuelan generals' uniforms. Apart from drug trafficking, members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces have also been linked to illegal mining, money laundering, and smuggling raw materials such as oil, or gold.
While multiple incidents of Venezuelan Armed Forces members or Bolivarian Republic officials participating in drug trafficking have been documented, the US allegation that the Cartel of the Suns constitutes a formal organization or organized network led by Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has generally been rejected by independent experts as unsubstantiated. The subsequent designation of Cartel of the Suns as a Foreign Terrorist Organization was criticized as providing a potential legal rationale for regime change in Venezuela, coinciding with a significant US military buildup in the region.
After Maduro's capture by the United States in January 2026 (Operation Absolute Resolve), the US Department of Justice issued a revised indictment against him that abandoned the characterization of the Cartel de los Soles as a formal organization and instead described his oversight of a "patronage system" and "culture of corruption" funded by drug trafficking. US secretary of state Marco Rubio continued to refer to the Cartel of the Suns as a drug cartel.
History
In 1993, the term Cartel de los Soles or "Cartel of the Suns" was first used when two National Guard generals of the Anti-Drug National Command, Ramón Guillén Dávila and Orlando Hernández Villegas, were investigated for alleged drug trafficking crimes. It was discovered that Guillén approved a cocaine shipment from Venezuela to the United States, following demands from undercover CIA agents, which sought to infiltrate Colombian gangs trafficking cocaine into the United States. Thor Halvorssen, the anti-drug commissioner in Venezuela, defended Guillén's innocence regarding the cocaine shipment.
Reports that members of the Venezuelan military were involved in drug trafficking emerged in 1998, though they were limited to the taking of payments and ignoring drug traffickers. It was alleged that officers of Hugo Chávez's Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 who planned the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts had created a group that participated in drug trafficking known as the Cartel Bolivariano or Bolivarian Cartel. Following the 1992 coup attempts, the Los Angeles Times noted that Venezuelan officers may have sought to take over the government, since there was "money to be made from corruption, particularly in drugs". According to Héctor Landaeta, a journalist and author of Chavismo, Narco-trafficking and the Military, the phenomenon began when Colombian drugs began to enter into Venezuela from corrupt border units and the "rot moved its way up the ranks".
Bolivarian government The "Cartel of the Suns" name returned in 2004, when it was used by reporter and city council member Mauro Marcano to describe corruption in the Venezuelan government. Shortly before he was murdered, Marcano alleged that Alexis Maneiro, head of the National Guard and the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, was involved in drug trafficking.
According to Vice News, the Venezuelan government under Chávez expanded corruption to "unprecedented levels" in an already corrupt military. Chávez gave military officials millions of dollars for social programs that allegedly disappeared, while also giving legal immunity to drug trafficking officials to maintain power and loyalty. In 2005, Chávez expelled the US Drug Enforcement Administration from Venezuela, accusing it of espionage. Chávez claimed that his administration's efforts against drug trafficking became more effective without US involvement as drug seizures increased by 80% that year. However, they declined in later years. According to Colombian intelligence, an arrested drug vigilante stated that "senior figures in President Hugo Chávez's security forces arranged drug shipments through Venezuela". It has been alleged that the National Guard also worked with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to facilitate the drug trade. British officials alleged that planes from Colombia involved in trafficking drugs would be sheltered by Venezuelan Air Force bases.
In September 2013, an incident allegedly linked to the Cartel of the Suns and involving men from the Venezuelan National Guard occurred, when 31 suitcases containing 1.3 tons of cocaine were discovered on an Air France flight. The incident "astonished" Charles de Gaulle Airport authorities, as it was the largest seizure of cocaine recorded in mainland France. On 15 February 2014, a commander of the Venezuelan National Guard was arrested while driving to Valencia with his family with 554 kilos of cocaine in his possession.
On 11 November 2015, DEA agents in Haiti arrested two relatives (an adopted son and nephew) of Cilia Flores, the first lady of Venezuela, as they attempted to move 800 kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the United States. A source from the DEA unofficially stated that the shipment was allowed to pass through Venezuela due to government corruption. According to Robert E. Looney, the shipment might have been made possible by the help of corrupt members of the Venezuelan Presidential Honor Guard.
Designation as a terrorist organization
In March 2020, the US Department of Justice indicted Maduro and 14 other Venezuelan officials on charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and drug trafficking. The indictment alleged that, since at least 1999, they acted as leaders and managers of the Cartel of the Suns. The indictment also alleged that Maduro coordinated with the FARC, negotiating multi-ton cocaine shipments and providing weapons to the Colombian guerrilla group. Two of the indicted officials have since pleaded guilty in US federal courts. In June 2023, retired General Clíver Alcalá Cordones pleaded guilty to providing material support and firearms to the FARC; he was sentenced to 21 years and 6 months in prison in April 2024. In June 2025, former military intelligence director Hugo Carvajal (who had been extradited from Spain in 2023) pleaded guilty to all four charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
In July 2025, the US Treasury Department designated the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. On 16 November 2025, the US Department of State designated them as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, alleging they were "responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe", calling them "narco-terrorists", and stating that the Maduro regime is "illegitimate" and that "neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela's legitimate government". The designation took effect on 24 November 2025.
Following the US SDGT designation, several Latin American governments issued similar declarations. As of November 2025, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru have also designated the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization. Other regional leaders have disputed the US allegations. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, when asked about the US allegations at a press conference, answered that it was the first time she had heard of such accusations and requested the US produce supporting evidence. Colombian president Gustavo Petro denounced US actions, dismissing the Department of Justice's allegations as a fabricated pretext to force regime change. He maintained that " "It is the fictional excuse of the far right to bring down governments that do not obey them." The Colombian Senate subsequently defied Petro, voting 33 to 20 to declare the Cartel of the Suns a transnational criminal and terrorist organization.
The main source of drugs in the US is the synthetic opioid fentanyl from Mexico and cocaine from Colombia; Venezuela does not produce or ship fentanyl. While it is a transit country for Colombian cocaine, it is estimated that 400 tones of cocaine transit through it yearly, most of it destined for Europe, while about 2660 tones of cocaine are produced on annual basis in Colombia. However, according to former US officials, Venezuela is unique because of "the degree of state control and involvement in the drugs trade."
In August 2025, the United States deployed 4,500 troops and several Navy warships to the southern Caribbean as part of a major counter-narcotics operation aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks, including groups such as Cartel of the Suns. Effective November 24 2025, the Department of State of the Trump Administration escalated its targeting of the Cartel of the Suns by designating it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) headed by Nicolás Maduro. The move received criticism from experts who do not consider it an actual drug organization led by Maduro and was described as providing a legal rationale for possible military action and regime change in Venezuela.
After the United States launched strikes to capture Maduro in January 2026 and bring him to the United States to face charges related to alleged drug trafficking, the new indictment did not refer to the Cartel of the Suns as a group, instead referring to Maduro's position atop a drug-trafficking backed "patronage system" and "culture of corruption".
Organization The Cartel of the Suns allegedly operates through multiple branches of the Armed Forces of Venezuela, including the Venezuelan Army, Venezuelan Navy, Venezuelan Air Force, and Venezuelan National Guard, encompassing the lowest to the highest levels of personnel. InSight Crime describes it not as a hierarchical organization, but as "loose network of cells" within the Armed Forces of Venezuela which "operate essentially as drug trafficking organizations." In the Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Economies, Robert E. Looney describes the Cartel of the Suns as a "loose assembly of high-ranking retired military men", and argues that it "is not responsible for producing drugs, setting prices, or restricting competition; instead, it is responsible for the transport of shipments though Venezuela to key hubs in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Europe via Africa".
Low-level personnel Allegedly, lower ranking National Guardsmen compete for positions at border checkpoints so they can be paid bribes for "illicit trade", though a large portion of bribes go to their superiors. According to these allegations, corrupt officials then traffic drugs from Colombia to Venezuela where they are shipped internationally.
High-level officials
Nicolás Maduro