The United States has imposed new sanctions on Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores, and Efrain Campo, coinciding with President Trump’s announcement of the seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela’s shores.
The sanctions extend to Panamanian entrepreneur Ramon Carretero, alongside six companies and six Venezuelan-flagged vessels, all accused of transporting Venezuelan oil.
Carretero faces accusations of aiding oil shipments for the Venezuelan government, with the Treasury highlighting his business interactions with the Maduro-Flores family, including joint ventures in several enterprises.
On Thursday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released the sanctions list, aimed at restricting their access to assets and properties within the United States.
These measures are designed to prohibit US businesses and individuals from engaging in transactions with the sanctioned parties.
Banks and financial entities that breach these restrictions could face penalties or enforcement actions themselves.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that “Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people”.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he said.
This is not the first time Maduro’s family has been involved in a political tit-for-tat with the US.
In October 2022, Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing Flores and Campo, who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions.
The pair were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and convicted the following year in New York.
Carlos Flores had been sanctioned in July 2017 but was removed from Treasury’s list in 2022 during the Biden administration years in an effort to promote negotiations for democratic elections in Venezuela.
The US’s latest actions against Venezuela follow a series of deadly strikes the US has conducted on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed at least 87 people since early September.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
In response to questions from CNN, Trump said he had not spoken to Maduro recently and declined to say who owns the seized tanker.
The Venezuelan government said it “strongly denounces” the seizure and described the move as an “act of international piracy” in a statement.
“In these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed,” the statement said.
“It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
Venezuela said it would appeal the seizure to “all existing international bodies.”
Asked what would happen to the oil the tanker was transporting, Trump said, “We keep it, I guess.”
