According to the New York Times on January 6, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has revised the key charges against President Nicolás Maduro, removing the allegation that he led the “Cartel of the Suns” criminal organization.
The New York Times mentioned that the Trump administration had used “slang referring to drug-related corruption within the military” to accuse President Maduro of leading a non-existent organization.
In 2020, President Maduro was indicted in New York federal court on charges of being the head of the “Cartel of the Suns.” In that indictment, the term was mentioned 32 times. This was reaffirmed in July 2025 when the US Department of the Treasury designated the “Cartel of the Suns” as a terrorist organization, followed by similar measures from the State Department.
In the revised indictment, while prosecutors maintain the charges of Maduro’s conspiracy for drug trafficking, they no longer present the “Cartel of the Suns” as an actual criminal organization.
Notably, neither the US DEA’s (Drug Enforcement Administration) Annual Drug Threat Assessment nor the UNODC’s (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) World Drug Report has ever included the “Cartel of the Suns” in their lists of major drug trafficking organizations.
Journalist Ben Norton criticized the move, stating: “The Trump admin falsely claimed for months that Venezuela’s President Maduro leads a group called the “Cartel de los Soles” (Cartel of the Suns), which does NOT exist.” He added, “The US Justice department has now quietly dropped this lie, implicitly admitting it was a fabrication. The entire US war is based on lies. It never had anything to do with drugs.”
