Venezuelan VP Claims Drug Seizures Increased Fivefold Since DEA's Exit: 'We Know We Do It Better'

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Monday that local authorities have seized five times more narcotics since U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents left the country in 2005, rejecting U.S. claims that Venezuela has become a hub for cocaine trafficking.

Presenting data at a press conference in Caracas, Rodríguez said Venezuelan forces confiscated 1,054.93 metric tons of drugs between 2005 and 2025, compared with 209.65 tons during the period from 1999 to 2004 when the DEA was operating in the country.

She also reported that Venezuelan authorities have neutralized 402 aircraft linked to drug trafficking since 2012. "When we compare our performance before and after the DEA, we know we do it better without them," Rodríguez said, according to local news site El Universal.

Her comments come as the Trump administration has justified military operations in the Caribbean behind the claim that it is combatting drug cartels in the region, including the so-called "Cartel de los Soles" which is allegedly run by the Maduro regime.

In response, Rodríguez cited United Nations drug reports from the last 27 years, which she said do not classify Venezuela as a significant route for cocaine trafficking. According to her, only 5% of cocaine produced in Colombia and Ecuador destined for the United States and Europe attempts to pass through Venezuelan territory, with 70% of those shipments seized and destroyed domestically.

Rodriguez has been one of the most vocal figures from the Maduro regime against the Trump administration's claims of drug trafficking. Back in August she rejected accusations from DEA Administrator Terry Cole, who said in an interview that Venezuela collaborates with Colombian guerrilla groups and Mexican cartels to send "record amounts of cocaine" to the U.S.

Rodríguez called the claims "false" and pointed to DEA's own National Drug Threat Assessments from 2024 and 2025, which she said make no mention of Venezuela as a major contributor to U.S.-bound cocaine. "The DEA knows there is documented evidence supporting our position," Rodríguez said at the time, adding that U.S. policy aims to "take the country's immense energy resources and undermine its sovereignty."

"The whole world knows where the real cartels are," she concluded.