US Sanctions Maduro-Linked Venezuelan ‘Cartel of the Suns’ as Terrorist Entity

The move blocks the group’s U.S. assets and expands Washington’s campaign to isolate Venezuela’s socialist regime over drug‑trafficking and repression.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington on June 30, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The Treasury Department on Friday designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles—known in English as the Cartel of the Suns—as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity, accusing President Nicolas Maduro and senior members of his regime of leading the group and supporting major drug cartels whose activities threaten U.S. national security.

The designation, issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 25 under counterterrorism authorities, blocks all property and interests of the group within U.S. jurisdiction, and generally prohibits Americans from engaging in transactions with it.