The Treasury Department applied more pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, sanctioning several members of his extended family, portions of the country’s oil industry, and a Maduro-associated businessman.
The Trump administration’s new sanctions come shortly after President Donald Trump announced an oil tanker was seized off the Venezuelan coast. More sanctions signal that Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has hit a fever pitch.
Maduro has been accused by the Trump administration of assisting traffickers in importing drugs into the United States. Trump’s first administration charged him in 2020 with narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking conspiracy.
The sanctions target three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores: convicted drug traffickers Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, as well as Carlos Erik Malpica Flores.
Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas were convicted in the U.S. on narco-trafficking charges in 2016 but were granted clemency in 2022 under the Biden administration. The pair returned to Venezuela and resumed their drug trafficking activities, according to the Treasury.
Malpica Flores is the former national treasurer of Venezuela and vice president of a Venezuela-owned oil company. He was sanctioned in 2017 but was removed from the list following a deal between the Biden administration and Maduro to resume Democratic elections in the country.
Ramon Carretero Napolitano, a prominent Panamanian businessman associated with Maduro and his family, is also being sanctioned. He has also dealt with the Maduro administration and facilitated oil shipments, the Treasury said.
Six shipping companies, none under the Venezuelan flag but all alleged to move the country’s oil, are also being sanctioned. The companies include Myra Marine, Arctic Voyager, Poweroy Investment, Ready Great, Sino Marine Services, and Full Happy.
Four of the companies are registered in the Marshall Islands, one in the United Kingdom, and one in the British Virgin Islands. Several of the companies are accused of hiding their ships’ locations and loading Venezuelan oil.
“Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people. Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that the U.S. is holding “Maduro’s narco-nephews and @USTreasury is sanctioning them for their illicit activities that hurt Americans and destabilize our entire region.”
US SEIZED OIL TANKER OFF VENEZUELAN COAST: TRUMP
The U.S. will continue to pressure the Maduro government, a State Department official said, signaling that more sanctions or other measures will be taken in the coming weeks. The recent seizure of an oil tanker is reportedly just the start of direct physical intervention in the Venezuelan oil industry.
“There’s a lot more where this came from,” a Trump administration insider told Axios about the sanctions. “Maduro, his family and his cronies have a choice: Stop the drug trafficking, stop the corruption, stop the dictatorship and leave the country — or pay the price.”
