Venezuela Safe Narcotic conduit for Terror Networks

In a latest report by the CBN News says that narcotic drugs make a nefarious nexus between Venezuela and global Islamic terror outfits. It blames that Venezuela, notably with the blessing of its president Hugo Chavez, allows the country to be used has a transit point for the drug shipments to West Africa, another alleged illegal passage which feeds both Africa and Europe.

Surprisingly, the accusations by the report come after Venezuela enacting stringent laws to dissuade persons engaged in drug-trafficking in the country. Last week, the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, ONA, Néstor Reverol, had said that a proposed reform of the Organic Law on Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances would send not only ordinary narcos but also any Venezuelan judicial or military official involved in drug-trafficking to jail for up to 30 years, the maximum sentence in the country.

The Former US State Department official Roger Noriega told the CBN News Chavez was well aware that drug shipments were flowing from his territory. “We have explicit evidence, and our government has sanctioned Venezuelan officials who have been involved in drug trafficking,” Noriega charged. “So we know that the regime is complicit for years, and that Chavez has to have knowledge and approve of this kind of trafficking.

Noriega also incriminated Chavez of letting his territory readily available to terror groups such as Al Qaeda and Hezbollah to transit cocaine and other drugs to their desirable destinations. The report says West Africa is the center of their interests in the multi-billion dollar business, and the region has become a transit point for cocaine bound for Europe. Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are alleged to provide security for the drugs after they arrive in Africa

Noriega claimed besides West Africa, the whole Caribbean region through the US had been affected by the Venezuelan illegal drug activity. He also said Chavez's complicity in drug trafficking was a cheap way for him to wage asymmetrical warfare against his toughest opponents, the US, forgetting his country-backed ugly coups in all possible states of South America.

However, the Former State Department official admitted that the nexus between drugs and terrorism originated in the West, and the US officials must be more pro-active in fighting it. The report charged Obama administration’s leniency on sanctions against Venezuela over its drug smuggling complicity which were considered under former US President George W Bush.

When the CBN News contacted the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC – it was directed to a summary paper on the embassy's website. The summary paper clarified that drug seizures in Venezuela had increased by 40 percent since the country stopped working with the American Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005. Moreover, Venezuela deported two drug trafficking suspects to the US last month.

By Jose Roy