2008-2012 Venezuelan Authorities Captured 102 Drug Lords                                                                     21 Were Extradited to the United States

Between 2008 and 2012, 102 important drug-trafficking bosses were captured in Venezuela.21 of them were extradited to the US and 36 to Columbia in accordance with their requests. The US government sent letters congratulating the Venezuelan authorities for capturing and deporting the drug lords.

Daniel “El Loco” Barrera, was arrested by the Venezuelan National Guard in 2012. Barrera (a Columbian) was charged with producing up to 400 tons of cocaine per year. An article in the New York Times described how the arrest was a complex cooperative effort:[1]

•        “The arrest of the drug lord known as “El Loco” was the result of a complex four-nation endeavor. Columbian police and intelligence officials camped out in a Washington hotel room with their American counterparts, monitoring electronic surveillance of South American phone calls. The CIA, the DEA, and the British intelligence agency MI6 contributed expertise. The officials in the hotel room were in contact with agents in Venezuela, who swooped in to arrest Mr Barrera as he chatted on a pay phone in the city of San Cristobal, near the border with Columbia.”

On June 30, 2009, Salvatore Miceli was arrested by police in Caracas. The arrest was made after a joint operation between Italian and Venezuelan authorities and Interpol agents. Miceli had been listed as one of Italy’s 30 most dangerous men. He was suspected of being a link between Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and Columbia’s drug cartels. [2] Venezuela extradited Miceli to Italy on June 30, 2009.

On July 4, 2010, Carlos Renteria-Mantilla was captured in Venezuela by local security forces with the assistance of British Intelligence Services. He was on the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s top ten most wanted list. He was extradited to the US.

On November 27,2011, Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco or “Valenciano” was arrested by Venezuelan authorities with the help of intelligence provided by Columbian police. Valenciano was accused of managing a 1,500-strong gang controlling the main trafficking routes from Columbia through Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico to the United States. Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos praised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for his arrest [3] Valenciano was handed over to Columbian authorities who extradited him to the United States where he had been indicted in 2008. In 2016, Valenciano was sentenced to twenty years in jail by a US District Court judge in Brooklyn.[4]

  

1.New York Times, “Unlikely Joint Effort by U.S. and Venezuela Leads to a Drug Lord’s Arrest,” Sept 22, 2012

2.BBC, “Mafia Man’ Arrested in Venezuela,” June 21, 1999

3.BBC, “Venezuela arrests Columbian ‘drug lord’ Valenciano,” November 28, 2011

4. Reuters, “Columbian drug trafficker ‘Valenciano’ gets 20 years in US prison,” October 19, 2016

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