00:00High-ranking foreign intelligence sources believe that by the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela almost two weeks ago, who had been labeled the head of the cartel de los Solis, the Caribbean region now has a realistic opportunity to combat narco-terrorism and begin shaping a future free from that illicit trade.
00:17Sources speaking on the condition of strict anonymity say that Maduro's regime enabled drug traffic and fuel corruption along transshipment points throughout the Caribbean and South America for several years.
00:28They say the arrest and extraction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cecilia Flores represent a decisive reset for Venezuela and the wider Caribbean.
00:37They argue that Venezuelans are now safer and that the country's path towards stability and prosperity has been strengthened by the removal of accused narco-terrorists from the highest levels of leadership.
00:48However, these foreign sources warned that the U.S. was likely to take further action on anyone in Venezuela who was contemplating reviving the old narco era, potentially facing the fate of similar drug lords.
01:00Maduro pleaded not guilty two Mondays ago in a Manhattan federal court to a series of federal charges including narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracies and possession and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
01:13He was captured in Caracas by U.S. forces in an operation label Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3, 2026 on his presidential compound just as he attempted to flee into his steel vault safe room.
01:25In the superseding indictment, it was suggested that unnamed Caribbean leaders also aided and abetted Maduro and the drug traffickers in their operations.
01:33The indictment stated, so too were politicians along the Caribbean route, corrupted by cocaine traffickers who would pay them for protection from arrest and to allow favored traffickers to operate with impunity as they trafficked cocaine from Venezuela north towards the United States.
01:49Mark Bassant, TV6 News.
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