Soles Cartel maintains US sanctions despite Venezuela's exclusion from anti-drug list
The Soles Cartel remains under US sanctions even though Trump excluded Venezuela from the list of countries failing to meet their obligations in the fight against drug trafficking. A former US intelligence official warns that investigations continue.
Sanctions against the Soles Cartel remain in force despite Trump's shift towards Venezuela
United States sanctions against the Soles Cartel have not been lifted, nor are its members affected by President Donald Trump's decision to exclude Venezuela from the list of countries failing to meet their obligations in the fight against drug trafficking. This was warned by Commander Jesús Romero, a former official of the US Navy Intelligence and expert in anti-narcotics strategies, according to diariolasamericas.com.
"Investigations into this cartel have not ended, the actions have not disappeared, even though the US government does not report it," Romero said when commenting on the executive notification sent to Congress on 15 September and released by the State Department.
The expert was emphatic: "Trump's decision does not mean that investigations into Venezuela have stopped; it also does not mean that kinetic operations have ceased. And it also does not mean that the actions of federal law and order organisations are not working right now in Venezuela to bring to the United States members of that criminal organisation."
The presidential determination and its scope
The executive notification makes up the "Presidential determination on the major transit or production countries of illicit drugs for fiscal year 2027", published by the State Department. In that document, the countries classified as non-compliant are Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma and Colombia. Venezuela, which had been in that category until 2025, was excluded.
Trump based the decision on "positive steps" taken by the interim head Delcy Rodríguez's administration, which constitutes a new signal of rapprochement between Washington and Caracas.
Romero clarified, however, that this exclusion does not imply that Venezuela has been removed from the list of major drug transit countries worldwide. "What is happening is that Venezuela and the United States began to work together and have carried out forceful operations that demonstrate the will and actions of that country to help the US government to achieve these objectives," he explained.
Three operations that supported the change
Romero, who advises the US government on drug-fighting matters, cited three specific joint actions that reportedly served as the basis for the Trump administration's shift.
The first was the elimination of "Niño Guerrero", leader of the Venezuelan criminal organisation Tren de Aragua. The second, the capture in Venezuelan territory of Aníbal Alexander Canelón Aguirre, alias "El Ingeniero", identified as one of the ten fugitives most wanted by the FBI.
The third action noted by Romero involves a significant reduction in the volume of drug shipments circulating from and to Venezuela. "It has dropped in such a way that the United States says they are satisfied with the support in these actions against maritime and air shipments," he said.
Venezuela: transit country, not a production country
The expert clarified that Venezuela is not a coca-producing country. The problem, he said, lies in its function as a corridor: "Venezuela has a transit problem because it is fed by the FARC, Second Marquetalia and the ELN primarily, with large drug shipments that were being sent from Venezuela towards the Caribbean, towards Central America, directed towards the United States mainly, and also towards Europe".
Sanctions against the Soles Cartel, unchanged
In response to interpretations by some analysts suggesting that the executive decision could have weakened sanctions against the Soles Cartel—an organisation designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government—Romero responded firmly.
"The fact that you do not hear the US government mention or not mention the Soles Cartel does not mean that it has disappeared," he reiterated. He also rejected that Trump's shift should be interpreted as "an indulgence towards Delcy Rodríguez".
Source: Interview with Jesús Romero, former US intelligence official / EFE
Source: Google News VE — Crime