The Paraguaná Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Political Power in Venezuela

On April 3, 2021, police in the east Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui acted on a tip-off to intercept a silver Toyota Corolla. They interrogated the driver, a middle-aged woman accompanied by a young relative. Under pressure, she led the officers to a residential building where her father, a large, balding man in his late 60s, was residing.

The man claimed to be an ordinary citizen, presenting an identity card under the name of Ramón Guillermo Valera. But under questioning, he admitted the card was fake. His real name was Emilio Enrique Martínez, better known as “Chiche Smith” – one of the most notorious drug lords along Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.

Martínez’s capture sent shockwaves through the country. His arrest marked the fall of one of Venezuela’s longest-standing drug traffickers, whose connections to powerful actors within the state had long appeared to put him beyond justice.

*This article is part of an investigative series carried out by InSight Crime over three years, involving hundreds of interviews and field work in all of Venezuela’s key drug trafficking territories. It looks at one of the world’s most important cocaine trafficking hubs – and the authoritarian regime that keeps the drugs flowing. Read the full series here.

The story of Martínez’s Paraguaná Cartel is emblematic of the deep synergy between politics and drug trafficking in Venezuela. His rise is a case study in how the interconnections between drug traffickers and local politicians, as well as security forces and national power players can form the basis of entire systems of criminal governance. His fall hints at how factional struggles at the highest levels of the Venezuelan state can bring these criminal empires crashing down.

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