US: #2 of Caracas Gov. shipped drugs through Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo.- The United States government placed on its “black list” the number two of the Chavez regime, Diosdado Cabello, accused of leading a powerful money laundering and drug trafficking network that shipped drugs to Europe through the Dominican Republic.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revealed that Cabello and Pedro Luis Martín Olivares, former head of Financial Intelligence, transferred illicit money to Panama, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, in addition to shaking down drugs from small traffickers and then exporting them through Venezuelan airports in 2017.

“Working with the current Venezuelan executive vice president Tareck El Aissami (El Aissami), Cabello Rondón organizes the shipments of drugs that were transported from Venezuela through the Dominican Republic and then to Europe,” says the US agency.

It said Cabello used the State bureaucracy to identify potential competitors and then take their properties and put them out of business, profits that they affirm share with president Nicolás Maduro and other associates.

It said Cabello, along with current Venezuelan vice president Tareck El Aissami, his brother José David Cabello, superintendent of the Venezuelan Customs and Tax Agency (Seniat), his wife Marleny Josefina Contreras Hernández, minister of tourism, use the influence of their positions and run the corruption and drug trafficking network.

OFAC reports that it blocked three companies (SAI Advisors Inc., Noor Plantation Investments LLC and 11420 Corp.) located in Florida, in the name of Rafael Alfredo Sarria Díaz, Cabello’s alleged front man, and through which he managed 12 properties.

José David Cabell is allegedly forms part of an extortion network from his position of control of the country’s customs.

In addition, in 2017 he would’ve hatched a plan to launder money from illicit activities through State oil conglomerate, Pedevesa.