RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Colombian Attorney General’s Office confirmed the capture of six members of the Soles Cartel (Cartel of the Suns), as part of an operation conducted by the Judicial Police in the city of Medellín on Saturday, August 8th.
During the operation, 1.8 billion Colombian pesos in cash (about half a million dollars), two computers, two money-counting machines, four cell phones, and four delivery company suitcases were seized.
The authorities said the prosecutor’s office specializing in the fight against drug trafficking had collected sufficient evidence “to establish the existence of a criminal organization suspected of handling large sums of money resulting from the shipment of cocaine hydrochloride to Venezuela.”
The captured cartel members commanded by Venezuelan Army soldiers and high-ranking officials of the Chavista regime are three Venezuelans, two Colombians, and one Spaniard. According to investigators, they are allegedly responsible for carrying millions of dollars from cocaine trafficking from the Llanos district in Colombia to Venezuela.
“The information collected would show that the narcotic was leaving the Eastern Llanos and being delivered to a network known by international agencies as the Cartel of the Suns, which would be in charge of distributing it in Central American countries and the United States. According to the investigations, payments for the cargo were received at hotels and exclusive sites located in Medellín (Antioquia),” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Those captured will be prosecuted by the Colombian courts for money laundering.
In February, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the United Nations body that oversees compliance with international drug treaties, released its first report analyzing the infiltration of drug trafficking and the Cartel of the Suns into the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
“There is evidence that criminal groups in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have managed to infiltrate government security forces and have established an illegal network known as the ‘Cartel of the Suns’ to enable the entry and exit of illegal drugs,” the agency said in its annual report released in Vienna.
This independent body, which is part of the UN system, states in its 2019 report that organized criminal groups “have carried large quantities of illicit drugs into Europe and the United States from Colombia, through the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
According to the INCB, in order to control such trafficking, particularly of cocaine through Central America to the United States, “organized criminal groups control seaports and use light aircraft, with which they run illegal flights.”
On March 26th, the US Department of Justice announced narco-terrorism charges against the main members of the Chavista regime and offered a US$15 million (R$75 million) reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Nicolás Maduro.
US Attorney General William Barr noted that the border between Colombia and Venezuela has been taken over by FARC dissidents under Maduro’s protection. He accused the regime of plotting a conspiracy with the FARC to “flood the United States with drugs”. Barr added that an estimated 200 to 250 metric tons of cocaine are shipped from Venezuela along the criminal network’s routes, equivalent to up to 30 million retail doses.
The department also offers rewards of up to US$10 million apiece for information related to Diosdado Cabello, head of the National Constituent Assembly; retired General Hugo Carvajal Barrios, former director of Venezuela’s Military Intelligence (DGCIM); and Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Oil. “While holding key positions in the Maduro regime, these individuals violated the public trust by enabling narcotics shipments from Venezuela, including the control of aircraft departing from a Venezuelan airbase, as well as the control of drug routes through Venezuelan ports,” they accused in a statement.
Among other officials and leaders, Supreme Court Chief Justice Maikel Moreno and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino were also named as the main players in this criminal scheme, as well as Samark López Bello, an entrepreneur with a string of crimes linked to money laundering in favor of Maduro and El Aissami.
Clíver Alcalá, a retired major general of the Venezuelan army, was also on the list but was handed over to authorities in Colombia and later extradited to the United States.
Source: infobae