File photo in which Venezuelan authorities show material seized in anti-drug operations. Photo: Johnny Parr/EFE.
By Misión Verdad – Aug 15, 2025
Last June, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its World Drug Report 2025, a key document that illustrates the findings of the UN’s global information system regarding the drug problem.
This report is the most important of its kind in the world because it compiles information from governments and security agencies. It is used by governments to develop their policies and coordinate efforts in their fight against drug trafficking.
The document was referenced by President Nicolás Maduro, who cited some of its mentions of Venezuela.
Key findings
According to the UNODC, Venezuela has consolidated its position over the past 15 years as a territory free of coca leaf cultivation, marijuana and cocaine processing, the president said, citing the report. This figure is particularly relevant given that global cocaine production has increased significantly to 3,708 tons per year, according to the agency.
At the end of 2023, global cocaine production increased by 34% compared to 2022.
The epicenter of activity remains in the Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), but production emphasis is concentrated in Colombia. This country accounts for 67% of the world’s coca leaf cultivation.
The most alarming figure is cocaine production growth, estimated at 53%. The UNODC stated the increase “is mainly due to an increase in the area under illicit coca bush cultivation in Colombia.”
The agency also used updated data on coca plant yields, noting that in Colombia only a few artisanal products and brands use the leaf for purposes unrelated to drug trafficking.
The regions of that country with the greatest net increase in crops are in the southwest, where strongholds of FARC dissidents operate. These groups did not sign the peace agreement and control the multi-million-dollar business and daily lives of vast rural areas.
Colombia remains the main producer, but traffickers have penetrated new markets in Asia and Africa, the report indicates.
“The violence and competition that characterize the illicit cocaine market, once confined to Latin America, are spreading to Western Europe as organized crime groups from the Western Balkans increase their market influence,” the UN agency noted.
UNODC highlighted that cocaine trafficking is particularly prominent among criminal groups operating in the Americas.
It cited rising violence in Ecuador, where the homicide rate increased from 7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020 to 45.7 per 100,000 in 2023.
United States under the magnifying glass
The UNODC World Drug Report again identified the US as the country with the highest drug consumption and main destination for cocaine.
But US drug problems are more complex. The country faces a serious crisis due to synthetic opioid use, particularly fentanyl.
In 2024, 48,000 deaths attributed to synthetic opioid overdoses were reported, reflecting the public health problem’s magnitude.
The report notes this market, including fentanyl, is growing rapidly due to low production costs and difficulty geolocating production centers. Many operate in Asia, Mexico, Canada and the US itself.
Organized crime networks in the US benefit from the lucrative drug market. Synthetic opioids, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine are embedded in diverse mafias, syndicates and money laundering structures operating on US soil.
These activities generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Networks exploit global instability and local vulnerabilities while using technology to hide communications and expand distribution.
A distinctive element is drug trafficking organizations externalizing violence costs, similar to exporting weapons and money laundered from cartel activities.
The great cocaine highway
According to UNODC, the situation in Andean countries has worsened, especially as transnational crimes increased in Colombia and Ecuador.
The area dedicated to coca leaf production in Bolivia stabilized in 2023, while Peru saw a slight decrease during the same period.
During security announcements, President Nicolás Maduro emphasized using UNODC data that the Colombian and Ecuadorian Pacific is the starting point of the major cocaine trafficking highway to Central America and Mexico. These serve as distribution hubs to the US and Europe.
Eighty-seven percent of drugs leaving Colombia travel across the Pacific. Eight percent of Colombian illegal products ship via Caribbean routes and Colombian Guajira.
Maduro stated, using UNODC data, that only 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela.
He noted Colombian drug trafficking groups and the Albanian mafia established a presence in Ecuador.
The absurd criminalization of Venezuela
A distinctive element of the 2025 World Drug Report is its minimal mention of Venezuela, stating only a marginal fraction of Colombian drug production passes through the country to the Caribbean, US and Europe.
The report from the highest global institution coordinating government drug policies makes no mention of the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which allegedly operates from Venezuela.
For comparison, the European Drug Report 2025: Trends and Progress, published by the European Union, mentions no role for Venezuela as an international drug trafficking corridor.
Though the European report states cocaine is the second most used drug in the EU’s 27 countries, Venezuela is unmentioned. Significant references appear for Colombia and Ecuador.
Cocaine trafficking networks developed strategies to increase supply to the continent. European authorities reported record seizures, including 13 tons found in a single vessel in Spain. The shipment was hidden in bananas from Guayaquil, Ecuador.
This is relevant because the EU commissioned another report, “Security in the Ports of Guayaquil,” based on field studies.
That report states 57% of banana containers leaving Guayaquil’s ports arrive in Antwerp, Belgium, loaded with cocaine.
The EU concluded Colombian, Mexican and Albanian mafias all operate extensively in Ecuador.
There is high consistency between the Guayaquil ports report and the European Drug Report 2025.
Noboa Trading and Banana Bonita, owned by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s family, are Ecuador’s main banana producers. They control port operations and international shipments in Guayaquil.
Before Noboa took office, three cocaine seizures occurred on Noboa Trading vessels.
Data from international bodies emphasize Colombia and Ecuador as key cocaine trade countries but still omit Venezuela and the so-called Cartel of the Suns.
Recently, the US government, specifically Attorney General Pam Bondi, announced increasing the reward to $50 million for information on President Nicolás Maduro’s whereabouts. This is absurd given his daily public work.
This measure originated from “maximum pressure” during Donald Trump’s first administration and Attorney General William Barr. It alleges Maduro’s leadership of the Cartel of the Suns but exists within a broader regime-change operation targeting Venezuela for years without success.
Trump’s Venezuela Drug War Gambit and the Militarization Playbook at Home
No US security agency has revealed solid evidence of the cartel’s operations. Transnational criminal organizations themselves have never mentioned it as allies or competitors.
According to the UN and EU, the serious transnational drug trafficking problem lies in the US, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador as critical hubs for production, trafficking and consumption. They are also hotbeds for money laundering, arms trafficking and cartel violence.
Solid data from international organizations suggest the Cartel of the Suns exists solely in certain US political actors’ offices as part of a coercive strategy against Venezuela.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/JB
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
