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DOJ has admitted the Cartel Maduro is accused of leading doesn't exist
6 Jan 2026 6:59 am
I like my eggs sunny side up, not scrambled, back to the kitchen, Johnny.JohnnyYou » 06 Jan 2026, 7:56 am » wrote: ↑ DOJ has admitted the Cartel Maduro is accused of leading doesn't exist.
Welcome to the shyt show USA.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a revised indictment against Nicolás Maduro which backs away from the claim that the "Cartel de los Soles" is a single, hierarchical criminal organization. Instead, the revised indictment refers to it as a "patronage system" and a "culture of corruption" within the Venezuelan government and military.
Here is a summary of the situation:
- Original Claim: A 2020 DOJ indictment, and subsequent designations by the Trump administration in 2025, portrayed the "Cartel de los Soles" (Cartel of the Suns) as an actual, organized drug cartel led by Maduro, and designated it a foreign terrorist organization.
- Expert Analysis: Experts on Latin American crime and drugs have long stated that "Cartel de los Soles" is not a formal organization, but rather a slang term or a figure of speech used by Venezuelan media to refer to corrupt military officials involved in drug trafficking.
- Revised Indictment: In a newly unsealed, revised indictment made public after Maduro's capture in January 2026, the DOJ tacitly admitted this point by mentioning the term only twice (compared to 32 times previously) and describing it as a system of corruption among officials, rather than a formal cartel.
- Current Charges: Maduro still faces serious federal charges in a New York court, including drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy, to which he has pleaded not guilty. The charges allege that he and co-conspirators leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal drug activity in collaboration with actual groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Sinaloa Cartel.