CIA Likely Behind December 18 and December 24 Land Strikes on Venezuelan Drug Targets

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A firsthand account of an explosion along the Venezuelan coast on December 18 is raising questions about who may have been responsible for the attack and whether it and a supposed fire at a nearby chemical plant were either of the drone strikes confirmed by Trump on December 26.

Two members of Venezuela’s Wayuu indigenous community in the area told NBC News that they witnessed an unexplained explosion on December 18 that destroyed a hut along the coast that possibly was used for storage.

The arid coastal strip in the northwest of Venezuela, known as Alta Guajira, is heavily controlled by the National Liberation Army or ELN, an armed guerilla group known for its history of drug trafficking that is also active in neighboring Colombia.

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Venezuela’s Cartel del Soles Sanctioned as Terrorist Group Supporting Sinaloa Cartel & Tren de Aragua

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The US stated that Cartel de los Soles is a Venezuela-based criminal group headed by Nicolas Maduro Moros and other high-ranking Venezuelan individuals in the Maduro regime that provides material support to foreign terrorist organizations threatening the peace and security of the United States, namely Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Today’s action further exposes the illegitimate Maduro regime’s facilitation of narco-terrorism through terrorist groups like Cartel de los Soles,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Treasury Department will continue to execute on President Trump’s pledge to put America First by cracking down on violent organizations including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and their facilitators, like Cartel de los Soles.”

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