© Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Nestor Reverol, the then-Director of the National Drug Office (ONA), talks to the media during a meeting in Caracas, January 11, 2010.
Nestor Reverol, the then-Director of the National Drug Office (ONA), talks to the media during a meeting in Caracas, January 11, 2010.
Nestor Reverol, the former head of Venezuela's anti-narcotics agency and a long-time ally of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is named in a sealed indictment pending in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, according to the people.
He would be one of the highest-ranking Venezuelan officials - and the only one currently in office - to face U.S. drug charges.
Reverol, who leads the branch of Venezuela's armed forces that controls the country's borders, could not be reached for comment by Reuters.
In recent years, he has rejected U.S. accusations that Venezuela has failed to curb illicit drug shipments and has touted the government's success in cracking down on the flow of cocaine from neighboring Colombia.
Comment: Venezuela elections and U.S. efforts to destroy the Bolivarian revolution
The Venezuelan parliament has taken steps to fight drug trafficking, including the permission to bring down «transit» aircraft transporting drugs from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Nobody in Latin America can measure up to President Maduro who has taken an uncompromised stand in the effort to fight drug trafficking. Even the US Drug Enforcement Administration had to admit that Venezuela had taken effective steps to counter the criminal activities related to narcotics. Transit planes have switched to the routes across the Caribbean islands.
Comment: Is this latest move by the U.S. just another attempt to undermine the Venezuelan government in its covert war on the country?