The small fishing vessel Sedna set sail as usual on the morning of June 3 from Punta Arenas, one of the docks on Venezuela’s Margarita Island in the Caribbean.
Five days later, the fishermen reported to their families that they were adrift after an engine failure. Then all contact was lost.
On land, fears grew that the sailors had been swallowed by the sea. But they had met a different fate. Weeks later, their relatives discovered that the Sedna had been intercepted by the US Coast Guard during an operation that seized 1 ton of cocaine and 1.5 tons of marijuana from several boats, including theirs.
SEE ALSO: Drug Traffickers Used Venezuela’s Isla Margarita as Backdoor to Europe
The tourist hotspot of Margarita Island, northeast of mainland Venezuela, is not just the country’s “Pearl of the Caribbean” for its idyllic beaches. It is also a strategic hub in drug trafficking routes to the Caribbean and Europe. Local fishers, criminal networks, and even security officials are involved in this lucrative but risky illicit economy.
Recently, the landscape has shifted. The presence of US warships and aircraft in the Caribbean — part of an anti-drug operation by President Donald Trump’s administration — has transformed Margarita Island. Fishermen and traffickers alike now face not only the dangers of the sea but also the threat of ending up in the crossfire of a military strike.
A Former Criminal Enclave
For decades, Margarita Island was a bustling criminal enclave run by local crime bosses, who primarily focused on drug trafficking. One of the most notorious figures was Teófilo Rodríguez Cazorla, alias “El Conejo,” a trafficker who for years controlled the now-shuttered San Antonio Prison, located in the island’s southeast.
Rodríguez Cazorla allegedly maintained ties with high-ranking officials in President Nicolás Maduro’s government, including former Prisons Minister Iris Varela, who reportedly allowed him to turn the prison into his criminal operations center. In 2016, Rodríguez Cazorla was killed and control over the island’s drug trade passed to a network led by Jhonny Alexander Silva Rodríguez, alias “Justin.” According to a ruling by Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice, Silva was arrested on Margarita Island in 2009 for microtrafficking charges but later escaped from prison.
Silva’s operations came to an end in February 2023 after a raid by the Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana – GNB), which was not reported in local media.
Yet Margarita’s international drug connections have persisted as a result of its strategic location. The arrests of European traffickers on the island in recent years suggest it continues to serve as a springboard for shipments to the Caribbean, Central America, and Europe.
Among the most notable cases was the September 2023 arrest of a Polish national, the subject of an Interpol red notice, who was wanted for his alleged role in a trafficking network operating in Europe and the Americas.
Despite this, Margarita Island currently shows no signs of major organized crime groups, and the state of Nueva Esparta, where the island is located, was among Venezuela’s least violent states in 2024, with a homicide rate of 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia – OVV).
While the crime rate remains low, state forces are increasingly encroaching on the island’s criminal scene in hopes of controlling the profits generated by coastal drug trafficking.
Expanding State Control
The Sedna was one of the few boats that managed to bypass the network of maritime checkpoints that have multiplied around the island in recent years.
Crime on Margarita Island is now regulated by state officials and lesser-known networks, according to local journalists, residents, and fishers interviewed by InSight Crime.
Since 2023, the Venezuelan government has installed outposts of the National Bolivarian Police’s Directorate of Aquatic Spaces in Margarita’s ports. Fishers told InSight Crime that anyone wishing to set sail must undergo a vessel inspection and obtain permission from either the police or the navy, in addition to the authorization issued by the National Institute of Aquatic Spaces (Instituto Nacional de los Espacios Acuáticos – INEA).
“Now we’ve got the Coast Guard and the Aquatic Police, and they never sleep. All night long they’re out there,” a fisherman from El Tirano told InSight Crime.
The increased security presence appears intended to ensure that all drug shipments leaving Venezuelan territory do so with government approval — facilitated by putting money in the right hands.
Fuel for fishers is also tightly controlled by the state, with a maximum of about 120 liters per week. The restriction is meant to prevent unauthorized drug runs, but it also impacts legitimate fishing trips. “That’s not enough to go far, and you might come back empty-handed. If you go out today, you won’t have gas to go tomorrow,” the fisherman explained.
Despite the heavy patrols and restrictions, authorities have found unauthorized boats with drugs, high-powered outboard motors, and hundreds of liters of fuel in sporadic security operations.
In March 2024, for instance, police found a vessel drifting near Macanao, in the island’s southwest, with 270 kilograms of marijuana and more than 700 liters of fuel. The operation suggested that those involved may have failed to pay local security forces their “fees.”
Cooperation or Deterrence?
The US military buildup in the Caribbean could reshuffle the drug trafficking landscape around Margarita Island.
Between 2022 and 2024, multiple Venezuelan boats carrying several tons of drugs were intercepted en route to Martinique and Guadeloupe. These seizures resulted from cooperation between Venezuelan and French authorities, signaling the Venezuelan government’s willingness to act against networks operating outside its control.
One such case involved a fishing boat that left Margarita Island and was found in May 2024 near Martinique with 2.4 tons of cocaine on board. French authorities, who led the seizure, said the drugs had likely been transferred at sea.
While France has focused on law enforcement cooperation, the United States has opted for deterrence, maintaining a military presence in the Caribbean since August 2025. According to US officials, the campaign has carried out 19 strikes, killing more than 70 people as of November 12.
SEE ALSO: US Drone Strike Highlights Sucre’s Role in Venezuela’s Cocaine Corridor
The recent US attacks on suspected drug boats may temporarily dissuade traffickers operating from Margarita Island, as has happened in other coastal states like Falcón and Sucre. Local fishers may also avoid heading out to sea, since doing so now carries similar risks whether they are carrying nets or narcotics.
For now, those involved in Margarita Island’s drug trafficking networks must choose between halting operations, finding alternate routes, or running the risk of becoming the next target of a missile.