Smuggling

• 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.
• How $160 million worth of export-controlled Nvidia chips were allegedly smuggled into China - The scheme involved falsifying shipping documents to misclassify the GPUs and hide their true destinations, including China and other prohibited locations.
• 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.
• 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.
• A Seized Oil Tanker and the Big Business of Dark Fleet Smuggling - The U.S. seizure of a vessel off Venezuela is likely to squeeze the country’s government, but do little to counter the tankers that secretively move oil from sanctioned countries.
• U.S. uncovers scheme to reroute Nvidia GPUs worth $160 million to China despite export bans - Authorities have shut down yet another China-linked smuggling network for Nvidia's AI chips, according to a release from a U.S. Attorneys office.
• Hegseth Says He Did Not See Survivors of Boat Strike Clinging to Wreckage - The defense secretary supported the admiral he said called for the second strike on Sept. 2 against a boat the administration says was smuggling drugs.
• Hegseth Ordered Lethal Boat Strike but Not the Killing of Survivors, Officials Say - Amid talk of war crimes, the details and precise sequence of a Sept. 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean are facing intensifying scrutiny.