Treasury Department officials sanctioned three members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s family and others for trafficking drugs, illicit oil.
Dec. 11 U.S. Treasury Department officials sanctioned three members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s extended family and others for allegedly trafficking drugs and illicit oil.
Three nephews of Maduro’s wife, a Venezuelan businessman and six shipping companies and associated vessels were sanctioned on Thursday.
« Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people », Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a news release announcing the sanctions.
« These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people », Bessent continued.
« Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes. »
Two of three sanctioned nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, are identified as Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas.
They are narco-traffickers and « known popularly as the ‘narco-nephews' », according to the Treasury Department.
Biden pardons the nephews
Both were arrested in Haiti in 2015 and accused of arranging the transportation of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to the United States.
They were convicted in 2016, but President Joe Biden pardoned them in 2022, and they have resumed their narco-trafficking activities, according to the Treasury Department.
A third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, is a former « national treasurer of Venezuela » and a vice president of state-owned Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
He was sanctioned by the United States in 2017, but the Biden administration removed the sanction in 2022 amid a failed effort to resume democratic elections in Venezuela.
