The nephews of Venezuela’s First Lady seemed to draw inspiration from the movie Scarface.

In the early 2010s, they cruised the streets of Caracas in Ferraris, adorned with diamonds, and frequented nightclubs where champagne was a staple of their lavish lifestyle.

They aspired to emulate Tony Montana’s empire and had the necessary connections to do so.

However, what they lacked was intelligence.

In November 2015, their ambitions came crashing down when they were apprehended in Haiti. They had attempted to involve Drug Enforcement Administration informants in a reckless $50 million plot to traffic 800 kilos of cocaine into the United States.

“They looked like they came from central casting,” remarked a U.S. official present at the arrest of Efraín Campos Flores, 30, and Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31.

The two were ‘overly-dressed in designer clothes; ostentatiously trying to show their wealth; their connections. They were just completely out of their depth – amateurish, spoiled brats of the elites,’ he told the Daily Mail.

Months of wire taps recording their bragging meant even their lawyers struggled to defend them. 

Efrain Campo Flores, second left, is seen with his cousin Francisco Flores de Freitas, third right, after their arrest in Haiti in November 2015 – still wearing their luxe loafers

‘It’s almost embarrassing,’ said John Zach, lawyer for Campos Flores. He told a Manhattan courtroom that his client was ‘utterly clueless’ about the drug trade and said the pair were, ‘very stupid men.’

The ‘Narco Nephews’ and the children of other leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution – ‘Bolichicos’, as they are nicknamed – are a vivid illustration of the rotten heart of Venezuela, say the regime’s critics, after the US capture of de facto President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.

A source close to opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, told the Daily Mail that the youngsters are, ‘part of the cast of cartoon villains who have stolen and pillaged from their own people, the American people and pretty much everyone else in between.’

Most high profile at the moment is undoubtedly the son of the deposed president, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, known as Nicolasito.

He was indicted for cocaine trafficking alongside his father and stepmother, Cilia Flores, in New York City in 2020 and remains at large in Caracas, parading through the National Assembly where he sits as a deputy.

But his political rise was not without assistance.

‘His father and stepmother hoped he’d be positioning himself for presidential rule. But he didn’t have the muscle or the brains,’ said one Caracas-based political analyst, speaking to the Daily Mail by phone. ‘He’s there because he’s a kind of naive guy, being shunted around. He’s just a bad copy of his dad.’ 

As a young man he played the flute in Venezuela’s much-lauded nationwide music program, El Sistema – even releasing a 2014 Christmas album, People of Peace, starring himself on the flute, with other regime-friendly musicians.

He failed, however, to make a career out of it.

Nicolas Maduro is seen with his son Nicolasito and wife Cilia Flores in April 2013, on becoming president of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez handed him leadership of the counry on his deathbed

Nicolas Maduro Guerra, (pictured on January 11), is undoubtedly the most high profile of the political offspring

The young princeling graduated with a degree in economics from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Politecnica de la Fuerza Armada Nacional (UNEFA) in July 2015, but it was well known that his qualification was a joke.

‘He’s not a smart guy – I don’t have to tell you that because everybody knows it,’ one academic told the Daily Mail. ‘Other students, from the same semester, same subject, said he didn’t go to classes. When he had to give a presentation, he used another guy to speak for him. He has nothing in his brain.’

That didn’t stop his father making his then 22-year-old son in 2013 the head of the Corps of Inspectors of the Presidency – a newly-created position, which saw Nicolasito overseeing the bureaucracy in the provinces. A year later he was made director of the National School of Cinema, despite having no relevant experience.

In 2017, he was widely mocked for declaring: ‘If Trump dared to carry out his threat of military intervention in Venezuela, the guns would reach New York and occupy the White House’ – seemingly believing that the US president resided in Manhattan.

No matter: he was still a savvy international diplomat, his father concluded.

Two years later he was dispatched to Nepal and then to North Korea, to applaud wildly as the 42-year-old Supreme Leader was exalted.

The visit earned him another moniker, referencing his own princeling status: Tropical Kim Jong-Un.

What he was good at was partying.

In March 2015 he attended the wedding of Syrian-Venezuelan businessman Jose Zalt, and was caught on camera inside the Gran Melia hotel in Caracas throwing wads of dollars into the air. 

Other guests, as is typical, showered the bride and groom with almost worthless Venezuelan banknotes, which reportedly prompted Nicolasito to open his wallet and rain $100 bills on the astonished crowd.

Nicolasito is seen receiving his economics diploma from his father in July 2015. The qualification from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Politecnica de la Fuerza Armada Nacional (UNEFA) in July 2015, is roundly considered a ‘joke’

During the pandemic he celebrated his 30th birthday with a raucous gathering which rocked the district of Los Naranjos for 24 hours straight – held on the very day his father ordered a ‘radical quarantine.’

When neighbors reported the flagrant violation of COVID protocols, Javier Gorriño, the local police chief, wrote on X that he could not stop it because President Maduro himself was there. Gorriño himself was arrested at his home by military intelligence officers two days later.

Nicolasito’s fondness for a fiesta is shared by his fellow ‘Bolichicos’ – in particular the offspring of defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who currently has a $15 million reward on his head, payable by the United States for his capture.

Both his son, Mitchell, and daughter, Yarazetd, studied – and partied – in Madrid, where their activities were seized on by the Spanish tabloids.

In May 2018, Mitchell, then 24, was spotted reclining on the red velvet sofas at the Casa Suecia nightclub – one of his frequent haunts.

The following March, Senator Marco Rubio called for Spain to revoke his visa.

‘While people in Venezuela have no food, drink polluted water & die from lack of dialysis media outlet @ABC_gente catches son of head of #MaduroRegime military @vladimirpadrino partying in Madrid using ecstasy pills,’ he wrote.

In 2017, Mitchell’s sister, then 21, caused even more of a stir by allegedly flashing her chest in a Madrid bar while cackling with laughter: photos purporting to be of Yarazetd topless alongside two friends spread like wildfire on social media.

Back at home, rumors spread that opposition protesters – facing off against government forces with home-made shields cut from oil drums – had covered the metal with the image of Yarazetd’s bare breasts.

This fall she was once again angering observers – this time with her series of bachelorette parties; posing in a veil during a Peloton class and being showered with confetti at a luxury home.

Invites to both the couple’s September 6 civil ceremony at Topotepuy botanical gardens in Caracas, and their four-day celebration in October in Canaima National Park – a UNESCO world heritage site – were leaked online. 

Marshall Billingsea, a veteran US diplomat and policy specialist who was Donald Trump’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, claimed the celebrations cost $300,000.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuela’s defense minister, is seen with his son Mitchell and daughter Yarazetd, as teenagers. Mitchell is now in his 30s, and Yarazetd in her late 20s. She caused a caused a stir by flashing her chest in a Madrid bar 

Yarazetd (left) strikes a post with her friend Julikar Navas, whose father is also a general 

‘Clearly it’s good to be a cartel boss,’ he wrote on X. ‘On Oct 4, Vladimir Padrino Lopez is throwing a lavish wedding for his daughter in Canaima. The wedding will easily cost $300,000. (As Defense Minister his yearly salary is $12,000.) Meanwhile 5.1M Venezuelans are starving.’

Equally high profile are the three children of the widely-feared interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, who now has a $25 million bounty on his head: daughter Daniela, and sons Tito and David.

David’s drunken, whisky flaunting antics went viral in 2019, while his father was overseeing a brutal crackdown on an attempted overthrow of the regime. David mocked those enduring the widespread blackouts, sneeringly calling them ‘rats’ as he stared, bleary-eyed, into the camera at a party.

Tito, a robotics engineer, is lesser known but often pictured with his parents.

And their 33-year-old sister is more refined than David, but equally spoilt.

David Cabello is seen drunkenly drinking whisky and mocking power shortages in 2019

Pictured: Daniela Cabello

A source told the Daily Mail how, in 2014, she flew to Paris on her private jet for a weekend, just to buy a new book for class at the Central University of Venezuela.

‘We were studying French thinker Jacques Attali on Friday, and on Monday she turns up in class with his new book which wasn’t available outside France,’ said the classroom source.

Fellow students saw their glamorous fellow student as keen and able, but intimidating. The nine, armed, men who joined her in class did little to assuage their concerns.

She began dating pop star Omar Acedo – they married in December 2019 – and lost focus on her studies, insiders said, dabbling instead in music, modelling and social media.

She now works with the Venezuelan trade promotion board, Marca Pais – a job which takes her all over the world, and sees her flaunting her fabulous lifestyle on Instagram. 

From left to right: Daniela Cabello Contreras; mother Marleny Contreras; father Diosdado Cabello (center, holding his grandson); the pop star husband of Daniela, Omar Acedo and her brother Tito Cabello Contreras 

Given the bounty on their parents’ heads, might they now be planning their own exits?

In 2019, as opposition leader Juan Guaido tried to oust Maduro, Cabello was rumored in Venezuelan media to have packed his kids off to Beijing for safe-keeping. Could the same happen again? Certainly the families are believed to have spent years stashing millions in far-flung bank accounts.

‘Everybody in the government has a plan to escape,’ the Caracas-based analyst told the Daily Mail. ‘But I think the kids don’t want to go because they are very accustomed to two things. First, our tropical weather. And secondly, the money and the stardom.’

A former diplomat told the Daily Mail they suspected the children were, for now, staying close to their parents’ coattails: for the regime, fleeing abroad, would be a sign of imminent defeat.