Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting Nicolas Maduro’s illegitimate regime in Venezuela, sanctioning three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores; a Maduro-affiliated businessman; and six shipping companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector. Additionally, OFAC is identifying six associated vessels that have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.
“Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “These sanctions undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people. Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes.”
REVERSING JOE BIDEN’S FAILED DEAL WITH VENEZUELA
Two of Cilia Flores’ nephews designated today, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores (Campo) and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas (Flores de Freitas), are narco-traffickers operating in Venezuela. In November 2015, Campo and Flores de Freitas, known popularly as the “narco-nephews,” were arrested in Port-au-Prince, Haiti as they were finalizing a deal to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to the United States. In November 2016, they were convicted on narco-trafficking charges but were granted clemency in October 2022 by President Joe Biden. Campo and Flores de Freitas returned to Venezuela and, as of 2025, have continued their drug trafficking activities.
OFAC is designating Campo and Flores de Freitas pursuant to E.O. 14059, for having engaged in or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.
Carlos Erik Malpica Flores (Malpica), the third of Cilia Flores’ nephews designated today, and a former purported national treasurer of Venezuela and purported vice president of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), was designated in July 2017 but removed from OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) in 2022 to promote the resumption of negotiations for an ultimately failed deal pursued by the Biden administration to return democratic elections to Venezuela. Maduro continues to deny democratic values in the country and refuses to recognize the will of the Venezuelan people, and thus it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to continue to apply pressure to those tied to the Maduro regime. Accordingly, OFAC is redesignating Malpica, pursuant to E.O. 13692, for being a current or former official of the Government of Venezuela.
This action is just the latest Treasury effort targeting Maduro’s familial web of corruption, nepotism, and narco-trafficking. Malpica, Campo, and Flores de Freitas join Maduro, Cilia Flores, Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra, and Cilia Flores’ three sons, Walter Gavidia Flores, Yosser Gavidia Flores, and Yoswal Gavidia Flores, on the SDN List.
Also targeted today is Ramon Carretero Napolitano (Carretero), a Panamanian businessman that has engaged in lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime and has had various business dealings with the Maduro-Flores family, including partnering in several companies together. Carretero has facilitated shipments of petroleum products on behalf of the Venezuelan government. OFAC is designating Carretero pursuant to E.O. 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.