What Happened to the ¡Fentanyl! Hysteria? The Casus Belli Bait-and-Switch

Jan 06, 2026

DOJ boss Pam Bondi has publicly released the 25-page indictment for the notorious ¡narcoterrorist! Nicolas Maduro, Butcher of Caracas.

(She can’t for the life of her seem to find those Epstein files she had “on her desk” almost a year ago, even though she’s now required by law to release them in full, but she can sure get the Maduro grand jury indictment unsealed in a hurry. Weird how government suddenly develops the capacity to move with ruthless efficiency when it wants something done.)

The grand jury indictment of Maduro and Co., via United States District Court, Southern District of New York (emphasis added):

“NICOLAS MADURO MOROS, the defendant, now sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking. That drug trafficking has enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite, including Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDON, the defendant, and former Minister of the Interior and Justice RAMON RODRIGUEZ CHACIN, the defendant. That massive-scale drug trafficking has also concentrated power and wealth in the hands of MADURO MOROS’s family, including his wife, the purported First Lady of Venezuela CILIA ADELA FLORES DE MADURO, the defendant, and MADURO MOROS’s son, member of Venezuela’s National Assembly NICOLAS ERNESTO MADURO GUERRA, a/k/a “Nicolasito,” a/k/a “The Prince,” the defendant. This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States…
At various times since in or about 1999, Venezuelan officials, including NICOLAS MADURO MOROS, DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDON, and RAMON RODRIGUEZ CHACIN, the defendants, have partnered with narco-terrorists from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (”F ARC”), Ejercito de Liberaci6n Nacional (”ELN”), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, and Tren de Aragua (”TdA”), including TdA’s leader, HECTOR RUSTHENFORD GUERRERO FLORES, a/k/a “Nifio Guerrero,” the defendant. In sum, MADURO MOROS and his co-conspirators have, for decades, partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world.”

The grand jury indictment, after analyzing it, is found to contain no fewer than 67 references to “cocaine” in the context of Maduro’s trafficking operation — but zero references to “fentanyl.”

Which might strike some as curious, given that the nonstop line coming out of the Venezuelan regime change proponents for months has been “¡Maduro the narcoterrorist is poisoning the youth of America with fentanyl!”

Of course, the reality is, and has always been, that Venezuela has literally nothing, or almost literally nothing, to do with the illicit fentanyl trade — that’s all China, India, and Mexico.

What’s more, as routes through Venezuela account for just eight percent of the total influx of cocaine, it’s also got precious little to do with even the import of that drug into the United States, for which Maduro is now facing federal charges.

Per the DEA 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, fentanyl does not flow through Venezuela to the United States or anywhere else.

China — but also, increasingly, India, as China has made nominal moves to curb their export under U.S. pressure — supplies the precursor chemicals, like 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (4-ANPP) and N-Phenethyl-4-piperidinone (NPP) to the Mexican cartels, which then synthesize it and traffic it over the southern border.

Again, Venezuela has little to nothing to do with the fentanyl supply chain.

Via Statista (emphasis added):

“Data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supports the notion that targeting Venezuelan vessels is unlikely to significantly reduce the narcotics flow into the U.S. As the following infographic shows, Venezuela is neither a major producer nor a primary transit point for cocaine bound for the United States. In 2019, just 8 percent of cocaine departing from South America by sea traveled through the Caribbean Corridor north from Venezuela. Most shipments moved instead through the Eastern Pacific and the West Caribbean, while large volumes also enter the U.S. overland from Mexico…
Mexico also dominates fentanyl transportation into and through the U.S., with the Southwest Border the main point of entry into the country. In 2024, the highest number of fentanyl seizures were at the southern border of Arizona (1,164 incidents/ 9,089 kg), followed by California (621 incidents/ 4,450 kg), then the border with New Mexico (390 incidents/ 292 kg) and finally, to the south of Texas (76 incidents/238 kg).”

The hard-nosed realpolitik, Monroe Doctrine 2.0 of it all I can contend with, even if I don’t endorse the Venezuela adventure personally due to my subscription to the Ron Paul school of foreign policy; it’s the gaslighting and the lying and the feigned concern over fentanyl that’s unbearable.

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When he recently announced China’s designs on Taiwan, Xi didn’t feel the need to concoct any elaborate explanations.

Taiwan is China’s lost property, he explains, which it’s going to reclaim — a much more honest and honorable approach than concocting far-fetched theories to satisfy casus belli requirements under international law.

I would muse rhetorically about how dumb anyone would have to be to actually believe the United States government is interested in deposing the Maduro regime because of its alleged, almost non-existent role in fentanyl trafficking — but, if you go on X, it seems that lots of people with MAGA-adjacent paraphernalia in their bios buy the line.

But anyway, since we’re talking “narcoterrorism,” let’s check in on the Sackler family, who orchestrated the largest organized effort to hook a population on opioids since perhaps the heady days of the Opium Wars in China by the British Empire.

Via U.S. Department of Justice, October 2020 (emphasis added):

“Today, the Department of Justice announced a global resolution of its criminal and civil investigations into the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma LP (Purdue), and a civil resolution of its civil investigation into individual shareholders from the Sackler family…
Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty in federal court in New Jersey to a three-count felony information charging it with one count of dual-object conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and two counts of conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute…
Purdue will admit that from May 2007 through at least March 2017, Purdue conspired to defraud the United States by impeding the lawful function of the DEA by representing to the DEA that Purdue maintained an effective anti-diversion program when, in fact, Purdue continued to market its opioid products to more than 100 health care providers whom the company had good reason to believe were diverting opioids and by reporting misleading information to the DEA to boost Purdue’s manufacturing quotas. The misleading information comprised prescription data that included prescriptions written by doctors that Purdue had good reason to believe were engaged in diversion. The conspiracy also involved aiding and abetting violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by facilitating the dispensing of its opioid products, including OxyContin, without a legitimate medical purpose, and thus without lawful prescriptions.
In addition, Purdue will admit to conspiring to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Between June 2009 and March 2017, Purdue made payments to two doctors through Purdue’s doctor speaker program to induce those doctors to write more prescriptions of Purdue’s opioid products. Similarly, from approximately April 2016 through December 2016, Purdue made payments to Practice Fusion Inc., an electronic health records company, in exchange for referring, recommending, and arranging for the ordering of Purdue’s extended release opioid products – OxyContin, Butrans, and Hysingla.”

You’ll note that the private limited partnership, a non-human legal fiction, Purdue Pharma, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government, among a litany of other charges — not the humans themselves who ran Purdue Pharma and perpetrated the scam, the Sacklers.

Somehow, the old goblin himself, Purdue Pharma president during the opioid crisis Richard Sackler, not only managed to escape the perp-walk treatment that Maduro recently enjoyed; he’s currently living in a $1.7 million home in Boca Raton, Florida, sipping mimosas, free and still worth billions of ill-gotten dollars.

Which might lead some to accuse the government of selective and performative outrage over drug trafficking.

Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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