Venezuelan 'narconephews' bad at drug smuggling, defense and prosecution say

Defense says pair were ‘stupid’ and set up by informants while US prosecutors claim they overestimated their power in trying to ship 800 kilos of cocaine to US

 Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores after their arrest in Haiti in 2015. Photograph: Reuters

Amanda Holpuch in New York-Monday 7 November 2016 

The nephews of Venezuela’s first lady believed they were so powerful that they could dispatch drug-filled planes from the “presidential hangar” at Caracas airport, US prosecutors have said at the start of a high-profile narcotics trial in New York.

Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 30, are accused of attempting to send 800 kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the US. Both are nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of embattled president Nicolás Maduro.

In opening statements at the US federal court for the southern district of New York on Monday, US attorney Emil Bove said the men “believed they were so powerful in their country they could ship almost a metric ton of cocaine from one airport to another”.

Bove said Flores de Freitas had bragged to informants that he had “complete control” of the main airport in Caracas and could send drug-filled planes from the presidential hangar.

But while the government painted the men as entitled braggarts, the defense described their clients as stupid, but well-connected, novices. “There are very few people in the world who can get their hands on 800 kilos of cocaine – Efrain and Franqui are not two of them,” said John Zach, Campo Flores’s attorney.

The cousins were arrested in Haiti in November 2015 following a DEA sting operation.

Zach repeatedly described the men’s actions leading up to the arrest as “stupid” and “dumb”, promising the courtroom that the jury would see “how utterly clueless Efrain is – it’s almost embarrassing”.

The defense instead placed the blame on the informants – including two experienced drug traffickers hired by the DEA – who were eventually arrested for continuing drug sales while being paid by the US government.

The trial comes as Maduro fends off a campaign to remove him from office. Maduro is blamed for the oil-rich country’s socio-economic crisis, which has seen triple-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and the second-highest murder rate in the world.

And now his wife’s nephews – characterized by the opposition as “narconephews” – have joined the parade of senior Venezuelan government officials tried in US courts for ties to drug trafficking.

In August, two former leading officials of Venezuela’s anti-drug agency were indicted in US federal court on charges of helping drug traffickers move their product in exchange for bribes. One of those men, general Nestor Luís Reverol Torres, was promoted to become the country’s interior minister, just a day after prosecutors unsealed their indictment.

At least five other former Venezuelan officials have been charged in US courts with drug-related crimes, including the former head of the investigative police force, CICPC.

Venezuela is not the only Latin American country where ties between drug trafficking and the government are assumed, but the DEA – which was expelled from Venezuela in 2005 – has been exceptionally aggressive in its pursuit of the country’s officials. “Even though we know there are narcotics traffickers tied to power in other countries, you don’t see that same level of dogged focus [from the DEA],” said Christopher Sabatini, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University.

Sabatini said the case is an indicator of the poor relations between Venezuela in the US.

It is possible, Sabatini said, that the US could eventually use this case as a bargaining chip in its diplomatic relations with the country. “We are constantly trying to get the government to move in a direction that would hopefully avoid any conflict or popular uprising that could be dangerous for the region and Venezuelan people, so this may be another chip in that,” he said.

The US and Venezuela’s poor relations were barely mentioned in opening statements, though Flores de Freitas’ attorney, Michael Mann, emphasized that the two countries do not get along and that the US government was “giddy” to be pursuing these two men.

The defendants said in July they feared they had been kidnapped in the sting operation that lead to their arrest. “Given my familial relationship with senior members of the Venezuelan government, I believed that we were potential targets for an extortionate scheme or other violent attempt at retribution against my family and country,” Campo Flores said earlier this year.

Prosecutors said that the men admitted to the crime. And in a recording of a conversation with the informants, the nephews said they were trying to get money to help their family oppose enemies such as the US.

In a transcript entered into the trial’s public record by prosecutors last week, Campo said the men told two informants they wanted to send multiple batches of cocaine to the US in 2015 in return for at least $20m.

The attorneys said Campo Flores said in December 2015: “But we need the money. Why? Because the Americans are hitting us hard with money. Do you understand? The opposition is getting an infusion of a lot of money and so, it’s also us, that’s why we are at war with them.”

Defense attorneys asked the judge to exclude these statements from the record, but Judge Paul Crotty denied the request. Crotty also denied a request by the US government to preclude the defense from introducing an entrapment defense.

If convicted, the men could face 10 years to life in prison. The case is expected to last 10 days, wrapping up just before Thanksgiving.

Witnesses including a Haitian police officer and a DEA special agent involved in the operation appeared on the stand on Monday. They will be followed by others tied to the case, including the imprisoned informants.