On September 2, a small boat left the Coast of the State of Sugar, in Venezuela, and headed for the Caribbean Sea. A few moments later, a missile launched from a drone hit the ship, killing everyone on board.
The fast, precise attack Attracted global attention and highlighted the role of sugar in drug trafficking.
“There is more where it comes from. We have a lot of drugs in our country … These came from Venezuela,” said US President Donald Trump on his social account after the strike.
The American authorities have published some details on the ship, but linked the expedition to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan mega-gang that Washington appointed a terrorist organization in January.
See also: What you need to know about criminal groups, the United States has just labeled “terrorists”
Land research by Insight Crime, however, questions this assertion. In recent years, President Nicolás Maduro's regime has tightened his grip on sugar drug trafficking at the expense of Tren of Aragua, although the group still maintains a bastion in the state.
Our field report highlights the role of sugar in the drug trade and how it can change after recent attacks.
A region depends on the drug trade
The boat destroyed in the strike has moved away from the municipality Aristendi on the Sugar Paria peninsula, just 80 kilometers from Trinidad, a strategic corridor for drug and weapon trafficking, as well as migrant smuggling.
Insight Crime could not confirm the number of people on board or the type of freight that the ship was carrying. But for the residents of Arismenddi and other coastal municipalities such as Valdez, Mariño and Cajigal, it is routine to see expeditions of drugs arriving on land and the sea before heading to the Caribbean.
The economic crisis that has entered Venezuela since 2015 hit the sugar fishermen's communities hard, which makes them dependent on the drug trade.
The benefits of tourism and fishing benefits by decreasing, fishermen and boats have turned to drug trafficking and smuggling, as well as smuggling migrants. Like their counterparts in other coastal regions, they are recruited by traffic networks for their knowledge of sea roads and local roads.
The American strike exposed this reality. According to the Venezuelan media, most people on board were residents of San Juan de Unare in the municipality Arismndi. Despite generalized coverage of American military accumulation in the Caribbean, they still put their sails, apparently led by despair.
“There was money everywhere – dollars, euros. More,” a Valdez merchant, another Hotspot of sugar traffic, told Insight Crime.
The diet calls gunshots in sugar
The importance of sugar for drug trafficking seems to have drawn the attention of the Maduro regime, which regulates criminal savings to maintain political control.
The first sign came in November 2021, when police and military forces target THE Tren del LlanoA criminal group of the Guárico state which had moved in 2020 in San Juan de Las Galdonas, in the municipality Arismndi. There he expelled a local gang and set up a faction for the circulation of drugs.
After allegedly flight A cocaine sending of a drug trafficking network involving the army, the government has killed several members of the group, including its leader, Gilberto Malony Hernández, alias “Malony”. A parent of one of the people killed described the operation of Insight Crime as “a massacre”. The offensive allowed the State to take control of the coastal city.
The presence of the government in sugar traffic corridors increased more in 2024 after capture In Colombia by Carlos Antonio López Centeno, alias “El Pilo”, head of a Tren of Aragua faction in the municipality of Valdez.
Beyond the striking gangs, the regime also continued after local traffickers. On June 5, the police fishing El Morro in Puerto Santo, in the municipality Arismandi, officially within the framework of a survey of arms trafficking involving Trinidad.
But local sources have told Insight Crime that the real reason was the loss of a drug shipment linked to a high government official. “When there is movement, it is because they sweep the area … A drug charge that high -level people have lost,” said a source.
Tren de Aragua maintains a foot
Despite the recent blows and the capture of “El Pilo”, Tren de Aragua still maintains a sugar presence, in particular in Güiria, the capital of the municipality of Valdez. Its proximity to Trinidad and Tobago makes it one of the main departure points for drug shipments.
In San Juan de Unare and San Juan de Las Galdonas, the state took control after the dismantling of local gangs. But in Valdez, Tren de Aragua “governs” still in part the region, although its power has regularly eroded.
Residents told Insight Crime that the group imposes “justice”, discouraging flights, ordering young people to paint public buildings and clean markets, and even surveillance of stores to prevent prices in the middle of renewed Venezuela inflation.
“The thief is held on the flight. The Crackhead prefers begging,” said a resident from Valdez.
But the role of Tren de Aragua does not go further. The real control of Valdez's criminal savings lies in the state – which is why the group always has a presence.
This contradicts Trump's assertion that the ship destroyed by the United States belonged to the Venezuelan Mega-Gang.
An economy of shipwreck
Now, the whole economy of sugar – both legal and illegal – has been disrupted by continuous American attacks, part of a wider deployment to challenge in the Caribbean.
After the strike in early September, Insight Crime learned that several residents of the Pariah peninsula work in illegal logistics networks fled the region, while the fishermen began to limit their trips to the sea.
On September 17, US vice-president JD Vance said in a speech: “Hell, I would not go fishing right now in this region of the world.”
In the past year, control of drug trade regimes has already weakened the economy of sugar fishing, because traffic is no longer open to anyone. Many residents are limited to playing secondary roles in logistics networks.
The dollars, the Trinidadian currency and the euros which once flowed freely thanks to the milking almost disappeared. Today, most households survive the government's monthly allowances and the food bags of local supply and production committees (Lysys de Abastecimiento committees produceForón – CLAP).
“The government has glued its hand a little to take over the business,” a resident of Valdez told Insight Crime.
But at least in the short term, most operations should remain frozen.
