When President Donald Trump announced Nicolás Maduro’s capture and framed it as a step toward drug-trafficking charges in the United States, he pointed to Venezuela’s vice president and acting leader, Delcy Rodríguez, as a partner who could help stabilize the country amid drugs, corruption and economic turmoil.
The Associated Press, however, reported that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration records show Rodríguez has been under DEA scrutiny for years. AP said the files indicate that in 2022 the DEA labeled Rodríguez a “priority target,” a designation the DEA reserves for suspects believed to have a “significant impact” on the drug trade.
AP reported that the DEA had amassed an intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, cataloging her known associates and allegations that range from drug trafficking to gold smuggling. In the records, AP said an unnamed confidential informant told the DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money.” AP said it could not independently confirm that information.
The AP also reported that Rodríguez’s name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations, with some involving agents in field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. AP said it could not determine the specific focus of each investigation, and that three current and former DEA agents who reviewed the material described it as showing an intense interest in Rodríguez throughout much of her vice-presidential tenure, which began in 2018. The agents spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigations.
AP said the U.S. government has never publicly accused Rodríguez of criminal wrongdoing and that she is not among more than a dozen current Venezuelan officials charged with drug trafficking alongside Maduro. A “priority target” label, AP noted, does not necessarily mean a person will be charged criminally.
Kurt Lunkenheimer, a former federal prosecutor in Miami who has handled multiple cases related to Venezuela, told AP that a label like that can reflect rising attention before evidence is ultimately tested in court. “She was on the rise, so it’s not surprising that she might become a high-priority target with her role,” Lunkenheimer said. He added: “The issue is when people talk about you and you become a high-priority target, there’s a difference between that and evidence supporting an indictment.”
AP said Venezuela’s communications ministry did not respond to emails seeking comment, and that the DEA and the U.S. Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment. When AP asked whether Trump trusts Rodríguez, the White House directed the outlet to Trump’s earlier remarks about a “very good talk” he said he had with the acting president, one day before Rodríguez met in Caracas with CIA Director John Ratcliffe. AP reported that Trump had also praised Rodríguez shortly after Maduro’s capture, calling her a “terrific person.”
Analysts and Venezuelan opposition leaders cited by AP argued that Rodríguez’s position in the government and the DEA’s interest point to broader concerns about the state’s links to illicit activity. Steve Dudley, co-director of the think tank InSight Crime, said in remarks reported by AP that “The current Venezuela government is a criminal-hybrid regime” and that “The only way you reach a position of power in the regime is by, at the very least, abetting criminal activities.” He added: “This isn’t a bug in the system. This is the system.” Opposition leader María Corina Machado, AP reported, said the American justice system has “sufficient information” about Rodríguez and that “Her profile is quite clear.”
AP also tied the DEA records to specific threads involving other figures. The documents AP reviewed, it said, link Rodríguez to matters involving Maduro ally Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities arrested in 2020 on money-laundering charges. AP reported that DEA investigators were looking at Rodríguez’s alleged involvement in government contracts tied to Saab, even after President Joe Biden pardoned Saab in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap for Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. AP also reported that DEA materials indicated interest in Rodríguez’s possible involvement in allegedly corrupt deals between the government and Omar Nassif-Sruji, but said Nassif-Sruji did not respond to requests for comment. AP said attorney Jihad M. Smaili denied that his client has been involved in any relationship with the acting president and said in a statement that “The insinuations that Mr. Nassif is currently involved in any untoward relationship with the acting president are false.”
Taken together, AP said the DEA records illustrate how power has been exercised in Venezuela and noted that the country ranks as the world’s third most corrupt country, according to Transparency International. David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, told AP that prolonged leadership within a system viewed as highly corrupt can make a person a priority for investigation, and that it can also create leverage: “She surely knows this, and it gives the U.S. government leverage over her. She may fear that if she does not do as the Trump administration demands, she could end up with an indictment like Maduro.”
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This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS).