Is Venezuela flooding the US with drugs? [No]
"Is Venezuela flooding the US with drugs?Counternarcotic experts have pointed out that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking, and that it acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled on their way to their final destination.Its neighbour, Colombia, is the world's largest producer of cocaine but most of it is smuggled to the US by other routes, not via Venezuela.According to a US Drug Enforcement report from 2020, almost three quarters of the cocaine reaching the US is estimated to be trafficked via the Pacific with just a small percentage coming via fast boats in the Caribbean.Nevertheless, most of the strikes the US has carried out have been in the Caribbean, with just a few in the Pacific.In September, Trump told US military leaders that the boats targeted "are stacked up with bags of white powder that's mostly fentanyl and other drugs, too".However, fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and reaches the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border."https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93n4nx5yqro"America is flexing its muscles in the Caribbean and the world is holding its breath. Washington has trained its sights on Socialist-run Venezuela, and the arrival of the colossal USS Gerald Ford has sparked the biggest military buildup since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Operation Southern Spear is now under way: a dozen warships, thousands of troops, and a barrage of so-called “anti-narco” strikes that have already left scores dead. The White House insists it’s about drug traffickers, but few believe that. With President Nicolás Maduro about to be officially labelled a terrorist and Trump accusing him of heading a major cartel, the scent of regime change is hard to ignore. Maduro says America is inventing a war."Telegraph, 17/11/25Mexico for fentanyl and Colombia for cocaine, apparently.
David Ainsworth ● 12d28 Comments ● 1d