Few Cocaine Shipments Head North From Venezuela

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the recent U.S. airstrikes on small boats suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea and east Pacific were intended to stop illicit narcotics from reaching the United States. According to the administration, more than 80 people have been killed in 22 known strikes since early September. At the same time, the U.S has deployed a fleet of warships near Venezuela, marking the largest American military buildup in Latin America in decades.

Critics argue that the airstrikes and surrounding military operations are “extremely unlikely” to seriously curb the flow of drugs into the U.S. and are a disproportionate response for a counternarcotics mission Many suggest that broader strategic objectives are also at play, including pressuring the Venezuelan government toward a regime change.

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.

In a public statement after a strike on a vessel said to originate from Venezuela, Trump stated that fentanyl had been found aboard. Experts dispute this, noting that Venezuela does not produce fentanyl. According to the DEA’s 2025 report, illicit fentanyl encountered in the U.S. is predominantly produced by Mexican transnational criminal organizations and China-based suppliers.

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).