The US accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns and collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel.
The United States government imposed new economic sanctions against the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuela-based criminal organization headed by Nicolás Maduro. Moros and other high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan regime.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) for its direct collaboration with criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel .
Cartel of the Suns: drug trafficking and corruptionAccording to the statement issued on July 25, 2025, the Cartel of the Suns provided financial, material, and logistical support to two organizations classified as foreign terrorists: the Tren de Aragua, originating in Venezuela, and the Sinaloa Cartel, based in Mexico.
Both were officially classified as terrorist groups by the State Department on February 20, and previously sanctioned for their involvement in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, armed violence, and money laundering.
The Treasury Department detailed that the Cartel of the Suns has corrupted key Venezuelan state institutions, including sectors of the military, intelligence services, the legislative branch, and the judicial system, in order to facilitate drug trafficking to the United States .
As a result of these sanctions, all cartel-related assets within the United States were frozen , and U.S. persons and entities were prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, foreign financial institutions were warned that they could face secondary sanctions if they cooperate with the sanctioned group.
The Cartel of the Suns is a criminal network allegedly comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials , accused by the United States in 2020 of narcoterrorism. According to the Department of Justice, officials such as Nicolás Maduro allegedly collaborated with Colombian armed groups to traffic cocaine to the United States.
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