Venezuelan Leader Delcy Rodríguez on DEA Radar for Years

When President Donald Trump announced the audacious capture of Nicolás Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S., he portrayed the strongman’s vice president and longtime aide as the preferred U.S. partner to stabilize Venezuela amid a scourge of drugs, corruption, and economic mayhem, Jim Mustian, Joshua Goodman, and Eric Tucker reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The DEA has amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, cataloging her known associates and allegations ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling. (Photo: Delcy Rodríguez Facebook)

Left unspoken was the cloud of suspicion that has long surrounded Delcy Rodríguez, who became acting president of the beleaguered nation earlier this month.

In fact, Rodríguez has been on the radar of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for years and in 2022 was even labeled a “priority target,” a designation the DEA reserves for suspects believed to have a “significant impact” on the drug trade, according to records obtained by the AP.

The DEA has amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, the records show, cataloging her known associates and allegations ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling.

One confidential informant told the DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money,” the records show.

As recently as last year, she was linked to Maduro’s alleged bagman, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities arrested in 2020 on money laundering charges.

The records reviewed by the AP do not make clear why Rodríguez was elevated to “priority target,” a designation that requires extensive documentation to justify additional investigative resources.

The agency has hundreds of priority targets at any given moment, and having the label does not necessarily lead to criminal charges.

“She was on the rise, so it’s not surprising that she might become a high-priority target with her role,” said Kurt Lunkenheimer, a former federal prosecutor in Miami who has handled multiple cases related to Venezuela.

“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.”