The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, through the Sectoral Vice President for Politics, Citizen Security, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, denounced this Wednesday the dismantling of a false flag operation orchestrated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The attempt sought to implicate the country in a drug shipment seized in the Caribbean.
The security operation resulted in the interception of a boat carrying 3,680 kilograms of cocaine and the arrest of four citizens with Venezuelan national identity cards. The senior official emphasized that all evidence points to the shipment was part of a setup made to accuse Venezuela of drug trafficking before the international community.
He identified the drug mastermind and operator as Levi Enrique López Batis, whom he described as a DEA agent and drug trafficker. López Batis would had ties to Jercio Parra Machado, an operator who works in La Guajira, in Colombia.
The plot included using the four detainees as false evidence of Venezuelan drug trafficking: «Four detainees with Venezuelan ID cards were going to appear; that is what they’re telling us,» stated the Minister of People’s Power for Interior Affairs, Justice, and Peace during the press conference in which he provided details of the operation.
Furthermore, it was revealed that the key contact between the drug traffickers and the US agency was a criminal known as «Cirilo,» who is currently detained in Puerto Rico. It was this individual who connected the DEA with the leader of the operation, Levi Enrique López.
The arrested individuals were identified as Joeluis José Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús Antonio Quilarque Carreño, Jhonny José Salazar Gutiérrez, and Carlos Alberto Bravos Lemus. The latter has a criminal record, having spent seven years detained in Puerto Rico for drug trafficking.
Minister Cabello emphasized that Venezuelan security forces acted in compliance with all protocols in a «perfect fusion of the people-military and the police force.» He harshly criticized the methods of other nations, stating: «This is how an operation is conducted… we don’t bomb a boat without knowing.» Finally, he emphasized that this case is part of an ongoing campaign to accuse Venezuela of «any barbarity.»