Wiretaps Reveal Colombian Drug Smugglers’ Venezuelan Military Deal

CBC News uncovered more than a dozen wiretap recordings from a Colombian federal police investigation that began in 2014 and culminated in 2016. The intercepts showed two Colombian men – Luis Ernesto Galvis Martínez (alias “Luisito”) and Luis Fernando Martínez (alias “Julio”) – planning to ship 32 kg of cocaine, hidden inside two electrical generators, from the Guarany International Port in Punto Fijo, Falcón, Venezuela. The plan involved a relative of a “little red party” official who could secure a Venezuelan military escort, or “Cartel of the Suns,” to guarantee safe passage onto a ship bound for Brazil and then Libya. 800 kg of cocaine were seized in 2020 off a Venezuelan‑to‑Honduras flight, and former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores face U.S. charges for narco‑terrorism linked to the same network. The wiretaps provide the first concrete evidence of the military’s role in the trans‑Atlantic cocaine supply chain.