Jurado also said Venezuelan former judge Luis Velasquez Alvaray had claimed that Cabello also does money laundering for FARC, which has directly impacted the economy of Venezuela.
Felix Jiménez, retired head of the DEA to NY and the Caribbean, explained also on the TV show, A Mano Limpia, that Venezuela has three main drug cartels.
Its first cartel is The Sun’s Cartel, formed by its military which had a single sun emblem on their uniforms. The Suns’ Cartel was a nickname the cartel took on when drug trafficking operations spread throughout the military—an operation Cabello is allegedly in charge of. The two cartels are technically the same.
The third cartel is the less influential Bolivarian Cartel.
Jiménez said that in 1998, the United States signed an agreement with Colombia to fight narco-terrorism. The two main groups they were going after, at the time, were The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
In the late 1990’s, two Colombian cartels—the Medellin and Cali—were in decline. So when Colombia’s military started the offensive against FARC, the guerrillas fled across the border into Venezuela and assimilated the Medellin and Cali cartels, that previously had control of the region.
FARC then invaded the Venezuelan territories of Apulia, Cura, and Táchira with the intention of taking hold of the port Cabello so they could more easily ship drugs to the United States and Europe.
The Sun’s Cartel grew from the soldiers who were assigned to guard the FARC’s drug shipments, and since they were paid by the FARC with drugs instead of money, they got involved in the drug trade at national level forming the The Suns’ Cartel, which according Salazar is commanded by Cabello.
Jiménez said “with the consent of former dictator Hugo Chavez,” the soldiers joined the drug trade and formed The Suns’ Cartel. The plural use of “sun” is meant to symbolize the whole military getting involved in the drug market.
If Salazar’s claims are true, it means that one of Venezuela’s most powerful officials, Diosdado Cabello, is also Venezuela’s pillar of corruption and responsible for strengthening ties with terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and FARC.
