The United States Justice Department has withdrawn a key claim it previously made about drug trafficking in Venezuela. In a revised criminal indictment released after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured,

Experta say ongoing turf wars between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza ultimately benefit the Jalisco cartel, which continues to expand across Mexico and has become the first cartel in the country's history

Evidence at sentencing revealed that Juan Francisco “Pariente” Castaneda threatened to kill co-defendants during the course of the investigation and “feed them to the dogs.”

Nicholas Maduro is no longer accused by the US of being the leader of a drug trafficking cartel. The department of justice (DoJ) dropped allegations that the toppled Venezuelan leader was the head of the drug-trafficking group Cartel de los Soles, which translates to Cartel of the Suns, a gang many analysts believe does not actually exist.

The Department of Justice significantly reduced reference to the Cartel de Los Soles in an updated indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who has been charged “with narco-terrorism conspiracy” and other charges. Maduro pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday.

Last year, before capturing President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration designated a Venezuelan slang term for drug corruption in the military as a terrorist organization and said he led it.

A new Department of Justice indictment against deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro quietly changed language accusing him of leading a drug cartel.

The US Justice Department has removed references identifying Nicolás Maduro as the leader of the so-called Cartel of the Suns in a revised indictment, softening earlier claims while maintaining drug trafficking charges against the Venezuelan president.

Thomas V. Cash, a charismatic Drug Enforcement Administration official who ran its Miami field division during a cocaine-soaked era and as a supervisor helped take down the Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, died on Dec. 25 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 85.

The indictment against the former Venezuelan president, presented by US authorities on Monday, no longer includes the accusation from five years ago, which had until recently been claimed by the Trump administration.

In November, President Trump ramped up pressure on Maduro by designating the Cartel de los Soles as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” The action was done as part of the Trump administration’s escalating campaign to combat drug trafficking into the U.S.

The Department of Justice has admitted that a drug cartel cited by President Donald Trump as a justification for his military strike on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolas Maduro doesn’t actually exist.