Alex Horton

Venezuela is not on the radar for any kind of considerable drug trafficking.

And the stuff they do have, a lot of it goes to Europe, not the United States.

And they certainly don't do anything with fentanyl.

So this thing where Trump is doing the connective tissue between drug deaths are happening and they're out of control, i.e.

fentanyl, to Venezuela, to Maduro orchestrating or supporting drug traffickers that help give fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.

And they have made that line go all through those points.

And some of it is very tenuous because they're relying on the fact that they're trying to kill Americans intentionally.

Right.

And therefore, we're in armed conflict and they're backed by Maduro.

And therefore, Maduro is an adversary that we have to do something about.

There's not a ton that's known about them.

I mean, the origins of the group are people in the government who had some sort of, you know, kind of handshake, wink, wink deal that would engage in, you know, illicit activity to include, you know, drug trafficking.

But as part of a formal organization, there is a lot of discussion about this on whether this group is an actual group.

Is it a real thing or sort of this sort of collective thing?

of high-ranking people and criminals that's just sort of an amorphous thing and not like Islamic State or Al-Qaeda or even like the Sinaloa cartel that has a structure, has a boss, and they have economics on the payroll, they have scientists, and they have distribution networks, and they're essentially a company.

This is not that, as far as we can tell.

They are not in the same realm of any of these groups.

I mentioned terrorists or drug cartels in particular.

I mean, the commander in chief at this moment could carry on what he has justified as, you know, actions taken against an armed group of combatants.

That's the way he describes some of these drug traffic organizations.