As shown in the National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) reports of 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has acknowledged that the United States has a structural relationship with drug trafficking.
It has admitted to extremely serious problems, including that the population is immersed in the consumption of various types of drugs and that the country is the epicenter of trafficking networks, serving simultaneously as producer, destination market for narcotics, and a major financial machine for laundering drug money.
The latest NDTAs indicate that drug trafficking exists within U.S. borders. For example, regarding marijuana production for use and consumption, the DEA reports note that there is an ambiguous policy, since it is legal for certain uses in some states while remaining illegal in others.
In its 2024 report, the DEA pointed out that the potency of both legal and illegal marijuana has increased in terms of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) concentration, from 1 percent in 1977 to 16 percent in 2022. This means that marijuana on U.S. streets today —legal or illegal— is about 15 times stronger and more addictive than it was decades ago, primarily due to genetic modifications of the plant.
The United States allows such modifications in its legal marijuana products, increasing their addictive impact to the detriment of consumers. In other words, the country is self-sufficient, producing the drugs its citizens consume.
The NDTAs also state that the price of marijuana in U.S. illegal markets has remained practically stable for years, despite its exponentially higher potency—a sign of abundant supply and of the DEA’s failure to contain either its distribution or consumption.
Marijuana’s price has not dropped because its market is saturated. Put simply, the U.S. is a drug oasis, especially when it comes to marijuana produced on its own soil.
In its 2024 and 2025 reports, the DEA admitted that the United States is the central hub for laundering international narcotrafficking money. It noted that money launderers operate on U.S. soil, offering services to multiple criminal organizations.
The DEA cited methods such as cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, mirror transfers, real estate transactions through U.S. firms, and other mechanisms available in the U.S. banking system.
However, the agency prefers to blame “Chinese underground banking systems” for these operations, absolving U.S. banks and government oversight agencies. At the same time, authorities declare themselves ineffective in controlling illicit funds and place the blame on foreign banks.
“Law enforcement efforts to detect, prevent and prosecute money laundering are complicated by the diversity or absence of regulations in foreign financial institutions, the massive daily volume of financial transactions, the strategies and deception used by Mexican cartels and other trafficking organizations to disguise the criminal origin of their profits, and the use of encrypted technologies,” the 2024 report said.
In other words, while the United States admits to being an international laundering hub, it shifts responsibility onto foreign banks or onto the supposed abilities of cartels to conceal illicit funds.
The reports detail some of the cocaine trafficking corridors. The 2024 report said, “Mexican cartels obtain multi-ton shipments of cocaine powder and cocaine base from South American traffickers, then smuggle them by land or coastal river routes through Central America, or by sea to Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, before bringing them into the United States.”
In this reference to Caribbean routes, there is no mention of Venezuela. In its 2025 report, the DEA said most cocaine seizures occurred in California, along the Mexican border, showing that much of the trafficking occurs via land and maritime routes in the Pacific Ocean.
Both reports specifically identify Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia as cocaine-producing countries, and point to Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic as key transit points for cocaine headed to the United States.
The 2024 report also mentioned coca cultivation in Mexico for cocaine production. Mexican cartels conduct these activities, though on a limited scale due to the country’s geography and climate. While production is minimal, the fact that the DEA listed Mexico as a small-scale cocaine producer is notable.
In Venezuela’s case, and according to DEA data, if coca cultivation existed—even minimally—it would have been documented. But Venezuela is not listed as a cocaine producer by the U.S. government.
According to both the DEA and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Venezuela is not a drug-producing country.
It is particularly noteworthy that Venezuela barely appears in the DEA’s 2024 report, and is only briefly mentioned in the 2025 report regarding the so-called “Aragua Train,” which was labeled a “terrorist organization.”
Neither the 2024 nor 2025 reports—or any earlier DEA reports—make reference to the alleged “Cartel of the Suns.” This cartel is a propaganda invention of the U.S. government, the Venezuelan opposition and the international right wing.
The DEA provides detailed names, aliases and command structures for the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, including precise georeferenced descriptions of their leadership locations in Mexico. But there are no references to Venezuelan government officials, Venezuelan citizens, or any foreign nationals conducting operations from Venezuela.
The only foreign government officials identified in the DEA documents are low-ranking security officers in Mexico, Colombia and Central America involved in corruption linked to drug trafficking into the United States. Venezuela is not mentioned in that regard either.
It is also striking that the DEA does not acknowledge corruption involving U.S. federal or state security officials in connection with drug trafficking into the country, which raises suspicion. Instead, the agency emphasizes that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels “dictate the flow of almost all illicit drugs into the United States,” asserting their dominance over trafficking operations.
The DEA further states that Mexican cartels are present “in all 50 states” of the U.S., with stronger activity in southern states. Data on cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine flows do not associate Venezuela in any significant way with drug entry into U.S. territory.
The DEA also does not mention Venezuela in relation to drug money-laundering structures. In other words, according to the top U.S. anti-drug agency, Venezuela does not appear as a threat or relevant factor in narcotrafficking toward the United States.
Nor is Venezuela considered—even minimally—a country linked to logistics, direct or indirect transport, or financial and laundering operations of the drug trade.
Source: https://www.telesurenglish.net
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