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U.S. Prosecutors Expected to Charge Two Prominent Venezuelans Venezuelan Official Is Said to Be Charged in Drug Case in U.S. Court
(about 2 hours later)
American prosecutors have charged two powerful members of the Venezuelan political establishment, accusing the men of receiving money from drug traffickers in exchange for tipping off crime groups to investigations and raids. On social media, Néstor Reverol, the head of Venezuela’s National Guard, has bragged about seizing large shipments of cocaine in raids against drug cartels.
The men, Néstor Reverol, head of the country’s National Guard, and Edilberto Molina, a former official in its antidrug unit, will soon be charged in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, according to a person familiar with the case. Mr. Reverol, a favorite of the country’s former president, Hugo Chávez, previously led the nation’s antidrug agency and a minister of the interior.
Mr. Reverol was a confidant of President Hugo Chávez and served as Chávez’s interior minister and head of the country’s antidrug unit. The indictment will mark the latest charges by United States prosecutors against powerful Venezuelans who the prosecutors say have assumed a large role in narcotics trafficking. But American prosecutors say that he has also been on the payroll of narcotics traffickers, tipping them off to raids and even stalling investigations, a person familiar with the federal case against him said on Tuesday.
In November, federal prosecutors charged two nephews of the wife of Cilia Flores, the Venezuelan president’s wife and a former attorney general, with conspiring to transport 800 kilograms of cocaine to the United States. They were arrested in Haiti. Charges against Mr. Reverol, along with Edilberto Molina, another former official in Venezuela’s antidrug unit, will soon be unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, according to the person familiar with the case.
Mr. Reverol’s indictment could be unsealed as soon as this month and will mark one of the highest-profile cases yet involving the Venezuelan elite. The indictment will mark the latest in a series of charges by United States prosecutors against powerful Venezuelans who the prosecutors say have assumed a large role in the narcotics trade.
According to the person familiar the case, who asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of the case, Mr. Reverol spent more than a decade on the payroll of the criminal organizations he was supposed to be pursuing. Investigators believe that the corruption extends to the highest levels of the government and that the line between officialdom and the underworld has blurred.
The prosecutors say that he regularly alerted narcotics traffickers about when and where raids were to take place. Mr. Reverol personally “stopped or hindered investigations” of drug traffickers, using his powerful posts to allow them to operate in Venezuela with impunity, according to the person familiar with the case. Earlier this year officials said they were investigating Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly, considered the second most powerful person in the country. That inquiry involved accusations that Mr. Cabello had been involved with drug shipments to the United States.
Mr. Reverol and Mr. Molina could not immediately be reached for comment. They are believed to be in Venezuela, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. Mr. Cabello has strongly denied any wrongdoing and any link to traffickers.
And in November, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged two nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of President Nicolás Maduro and a former attorney general, with conspiring to transport 800 kilograms of cocaine to the United States.
They were arrested in Haiti.
According to the person familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of the legal proceedings, Mr. Reverol received payments from criminal organizations, regularly alerting traffickers about when and where raids were to take place.
Mr. Reverol personally “stopped or hindered investigations” of drug traffickers, using his powerful posts to allow them to operate in Venezuela with impunity, the person said.
American investigators have long accused the government in Caracas of corruption and of being involved in drug trafficking.
Mr. Reverol and Mr. Molina could not immediately be reached for comment. An official at Venezuela’s Information Ministry said that he did not have information about the charges against Mr. Reverol and Mr. Molina.
Mr. Reverol was the head of the National Anti-drug Office, a rough equivalent of the American Drug Enforcement Administration, for many years. He was named interior minister by Mr. Chávez in October 2012 and was replaced the following year after Mr. Chávez died and was succeeded by Mr. Maduro.
Mr. Reverol was made commander of the National Guard in October of last year.
A Twitter account in his name has spent recent months boasting of raids by the National Guard against drug traffickers. A post from Dec. 10 showed a photo of national guardsmen using a crane to uncover a hidden shipment of cocaine in the flatbed of a tractor-trailer.
“Detected by our K9-unit,” the post says.
The National Guard is responsible for protecting the country’s borders, though its members, according to people who live along the borders, are widely believed to be involved in all sorts of contraband, especially across the long border with Colombia. The contraband could include the illegal export of cheap Venezuelan gasoline, government-subsidized foods like milk powder and corn flour, and drugs.
American officials say that a large portion of the cocaine that leaves Colombia passes through Venezuela. Many drug shipments leave by plane from hidden airstrips in Venezuela and arrive in the United States via Central America and the Caribbean.
The federal case could be another embarrassment to Venezuela’s leftists who have vowed to carry on the legacy of Mr. Chávez, who died in 2013. Members of his United Socialist Party were crushed in legislative elections on Dec. 6, which handed the opposition a two-thirds supermajority.
Venezuela’s economy, which is expected to contract by 10 percent this year, was the prime cause for the upset. But the opposition also accused the government of endemic corruption after 17 years in power.
In September, federal prosecutors in Miami unsealed separate indictments against Pedro Luís Martín, a former official with the country’s intelligence police, and Jesus Alfredo Itriago, a former anti-narcotics investigator.
The indictments said the men were involved in shipments of cocaine to the United States. The men remain at large.
And in July of last year, officials in Aruba arrested a former Venezuelan intelligence chief, Hugo Carvajal, at the request of the American authorities. Federal prosecutors in the United States charged that Mr. Carvajal had taken payments from Colombian drug traffickers and had invested in and coordinated drug shipments.
The Aruban authorities ultimately returned Mr. Carvajal to Venezuela rather than sending him to face charges in the United States, in a setback for American law enforcement officials.
Mr. Maduro of Venezuela denied that Mr. Carvajal was involved in trafficking.