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Venezuela: The nephews shipped drugs from the presidential hangar

The drug trial of Eduardo Campos and Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, revealed that cocaine was shipped to Honduras from the presidential hangar at Caracas’ international airport:

One of the nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, on trial for plotting to smuggle cocaine into the United States, promised that the cocaine would arrive before dark in Honduras because the plane carrying it would be departing from the presidential hangar at Caracas’ international airport, according to a recording played Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.

“I have control,” Francisco Flores can be heard saying. He refers to the drugs as “merchandise.”

Not only was there a recording, there were two witnesses,

Prosecutors also called to the stand an air traffic controller who said he helped devise the plan for the drugs allegedly to arrive in Honduras, where they were to be unloaded and transported to Mexico to be shipped to the United States. More testimony came from another confidential informant, who said he was at the meeting where Flores confirmed the plan.

The route, then, is Venezuela-Honduras-Mexico-US. Go to the article for details.

Closing arguments are scheduled to start today.

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  2. Fausta, thank you for all you do! I have not read ANYTHING in the news sites I frequent, including Spanish language.

  4. WSJ, Nov 18: Venezuelan President’s Nephews Found Guilty on Drug Charges.

    A U.S. federal jury on Friday found two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro guilty of trying to ship 800 kilograms of cocaine to the U.S., an outcome that’s likely to inflame the already damaged relationship between Venezuela and the U.S.

    Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 30 years old, and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31 years old, were each convicted on one drug conspiracy charge and now face a maximum of life in prison.

    After less than two weeks of testimony, the jury of seven women and five men deliberated for approximately six hours to reach the guilty verdict.

    Prosecutors say the nephews were planning to send planes loaded with cocaine from Venezuela to Honduras, with the U.S. as the ultimate destination, in hopes of receiving tens of millions of dollars in profit. They were arrested last year by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Haiti, a few days before the first shipment was due to take place.

    “The defendants thought they were above the law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Quigley said in his closing statement. “They thought they could operate with impunity in Venezuela because of who they were and who they were related to.”

    The nephews flaunted their political connections and access to the “presidential ramp” at an airport in Venezuela, prosecutors alleged. In one recording, Mr. Campo Flores said he needed the money from the drug deal to support the parliamentary campaign of his aunt Cilia Flores, the first lady of Venezuela.

    Venezuelan officials have called the nephews’ arrests a kidnapping and accused the U.S. of trying to destabilize the country. In recent years, the U.S. has indicted several top Venezuelan officials on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.

    At trial, the defense team, led by white-shoe law firms Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP and Sidley Austin LLP, argued that the nephews were entrapped by DEA informants in a sting operation and never had the ability or intention to carry out a cocaine deal of this size. The recordings of the nephews discussing drug shipments amounted to “a bunch of talk,” and nothing more, defense lawyers said.

    Michelle and Barack Obama met each other while working at Sidley Austin. Bernadine Dohrn, Weatherperson and the wife of Bill Ayers, also worked at Sidley Austin. Just sayin’.
    Life in prison, or five years in exchange for letting Leopoldo and others out of prison? Any takers?