Caribbean – The United States criminal indictment against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro alleges that politicians along a “Caribbean route” accepted payments from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection from arrest and freedom to operate as drugs moved north toward the United States.
The indictment, which insiders believe appears to be legally sound, claims that drug trafficking networks operating out of Venezuela relied on systemic corruption across the Caribbean region, with political protection playing a central role in the movement of cocaine from South America through the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico.
According to U.S. prosecutors, traffickers paid politicians in key transit countries a share of their profits to secure protection and political cover.
“The transshipment points in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico similarly relied on a culture of corruption, in which cocaine traffickers operating in those countries paid a portion of their own profits to politicians who protected and aided them,” the indictment states. “In turn, these politicians used the cocaine-fueled payments to maintain and augment their political power.”
The indictment specifically references corruption tied to trafficking routes through the Caribbean, though it does not name individual Caribbean officials. It accuses Maduro of having ties to six different gangs and drug trafficking groups.
“So, too, politicians along the ‘Caribbean route’ are corrupted by cocaine traffickers, who would pay them for protection from arrest and to allow favored traffickers to operate with impunity as they trafficked cocaine from Venezuela north towards the United States,” prosecutors allege.
While the indictment does not specifically name Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar stated, “I’m not surprised at all. As the story continues to unfold, I have no doubt that many respectable and celebrated people across all sectors of society will be exposed.”
In December 2025, Trinidad and Tobago allowed the U.S. to transit its military aircraft through its airports. Persad-Bissessar has long held she has no sympathy for drug traffickers, at a time when her twin-island Caribbean country has been struggling with rising homicides and gang violence. Last year it recorded 624 homicides, in a 1.5 million population, making it one of the most violent countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet, the escalation in her military cooperation with the U.S. is seen by insiders as laying the groundwork for Trump’s operation in Venezuela, and ultimately creating a path forward in cleaning up Trinidad and Tobago’s escalating crime problem.
Court documents claim Maduro and others used false diplomatic passports, a guerilla training school, private jets, and crates filled with grenade launchers to carry out their drug operations. Before becoming President, which by most accounts he illegally took power in 2013, Maduro, who was Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, used his role as Foreign Affairs Minister to sell diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers.
U.S. authorities describe Venezuela as a strategic hub for drug trafficking, citing its geographic position and access to key maritime routes.
“Venezuela sits in a geographically valuable location for drug traffickers, with northern access to the Caribbean Sea via several large ports and western access to the mountainous regions of Columbia, where coca is grown and turned into the vast majority of the world’s cocaine supply,” the indictment states.
The indictment also states that senior Venezuelan officials and their family members partnered with narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups to move cocaine through Caribbean and Central American transshipment points.
U.S. prosecutors estimate that by 2020, “between 200 and 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela annually,” dispatching 20 tons of drugs at a time in containers held onboard ships that left Venezuelan ports destined for the U.S.
The allegations have heightened regional security as the case against Maduro unfolds. It also raises broader questions about political corruption in the Caribbean region.
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