Counternarcotics and Law Enforcement Country Program: Venezuela

Challenges

Venezuela is a significant conduit for narcotics trafficked to the United States, with an estimated 150 metric tons of cocaine transiting its territory. Venezuela shares a poorly controlled 2,100-kilometer border with Colombia.

Venezuela’s ill-secured seaports also serve as embarkation points for multi-ton loads of cocaine secreted in hundreds of thousands of cargo shipping containers that go to the U.S. and other countries each year. The significant level of uncontrolled commercial shipping activity also provides opportunities for smuggling weapons and other contraband into the United States. Estimates indicate that approximately 150 metric tons of Colombian cocaine that transits Venezuela does so via multiple land, sea and air routes en route to the U.S. and other countries. Transit of narcotics and other illicit cargo through the Venezuela-Caribbean route has the potential to increase as U.S.-Mexico border controls tighten.

U.S. Counternarcotics Goals

• Improve Government of Venezuela (GOV) ability to reduce the quantity of drugs transiting Venezuela;
• Enhance GOV ability to control the diversion of precursor chemicals;
• Support institution building in national police organizations and assist the GOV to implement judicial reform; and
• Promote successful investigation and prosecution of money laundering cases

U.S. Programs

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) provides assistance for interdiction through U.S. law enforcement cooperation with Venezuelan authorities on investigations, cargo and airport control programs, interdiction efforts in, efforts to prevent diversion of chemical precursors for use in the illegal drug source zone, and assistance to investigators and prosecutors to enable successful prosecution of narcotics cases.