Donald Trump is leaning heavily on drug-trafficking accusations to justify his recent kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro. But a new congressional report has found that the vast majority of illegal drugs come to the US via Mexico and China, not Venezuela.
A new congressional research report has found that the vast majority of illegal synthetic drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, come to the United States via Mexico and China, not Venezuela. The finding comes as the Trump administration continues to claim that Venezuela is a narcotics hotbed to help justify its military assault on the country.
While designating illegal fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction in December, the Trump administration has accused the Venezuelan government and its president, Nicolás Maduro, of facilitating “narco-terrorism,” including the trafficking of fentanyl and cocaine into the United States.
Such claims were reiterated by Vice President J. D. Vance on January 4, following the US military operation in Venezuela to capture Maduro.
“First off, fentanyl isn’t the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was),” wrote Vance. “Second, cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin America cartels.”
However, a December report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s independent, nonpartisan research arm, found that Mexican cartels “dictate the flow of nearly all illicit drugs, including synthetic drugs, into the U.S.”
The only mention of Venezuela in the report is of a “high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan [cartel] designated as a foreign terrorist organization . . . charged with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
