Drug Abuse and Traffic

• Fact-Checking Trump’s Justifications for the Venezuela Operation - The president has repeatedly tied Venezuela to drug overdose deaths, claimed the Maduro regime sent an influx of criminal migrants and accused the country of stealing American oil.
• Maduro and His Wife to Be Arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court - Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, and his wife, Cilia Flores, will make their first appearance on Monday in a New York City courthouse, the site of other high-profile proceedings.
• For Mamdani, a Break With the President Just Three Days Into His New Job - New York City’s newly elected mayor planned to spend Saturday announcing a pedestrian safety plan. Then President Trump brought a captured foreign leader to his doorstep.
• A Pardon and a Prosecution in New York Show Trump’s Personal Geopolitics - The facts in the cases of Nicolás Maduro and Juan Orlando Hernández are strikingly similar. The men’s fates are not.
• The U.S. Indictment of Maduro Cites Cocaine Smuggling. Venezuela’s Role in the Trade Is Believed to Be Modest. - Experts have said that Venezuela is not a major drug producer but a minor cocaine transit country, with most of the cocaine flowing through it headed to Europe.
• To Trump, on Venezuela: You Break It, You Own It - His administration just decapitated the country’s leadership; he’s now responsible for what comes next there.
• Even as Trump Targets Boats in Strikes, Coast Guard Continues Anti-Drug Operations - Cutters are still stopping smugglers and seizing drugs, but the prosecutions of go-fast boat crews are dwindling in a realignment of federal resources.
• U.S. Kills 2 in Strike in Pacific, as Trump Pressures Venezuela - The attack was the 30th announced by the U.S. military since early September. It came days after President Trump said the U.S. had struck a coastal site related to drugs and Venezuela.
• Grim Evidence of Trump’s Boat Strikes Washes Ashore on a Colombian Peninsula - First came the scorched boat. Then the mangled bodies. Then the packets with traces of marijuana. Now, fishermen fear the ocean that feeds them.
• What to Know About Colombia’s Role in the Global Drug Trade Amid Trump’s Feud With Petro - President Gustavo Petro is locked in a war of words with President Trump over Colombia’s major role in the global drug trade. The issue is complicated.