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EXPLAINER
Trump administration’s claim that abducted Venezuelan leader is behind gangs sending drugs to US do not stack up.
By Maria Ramirez Uribe | PolitiFact
Published On 15 Jan 2026
A White House social media post misleadingly links deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro with the US fentanyl crisis.
The X post includes a video highlighting parents who lost children to fentanyl overdoses thanking President Donald Trump for capturing Maduro.
“Angel Families thank President Trump for saving lives & capturing Maduro – the kingpin flooding America with deadly fentanyl,” the White House’s January 5 X post said. “Justice is being served.”
US troops abducted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their Caracas home in the early hours of January 3. The two pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges on January 5 in New York federal court.
The White House post isn’t the first time the Trump administration has blamed Maduro for trafficking fentanyl to the US. Trump has cited the potent synthetic opioid that is responsible for most US drug overdose deaths to justify pressure on Venezuela in the months before Maduro’s capture.
But neither Venezuela nor Maduro plays a role in smuggling fentanyl to the US. The majority of US fentanyl comes from Mexico and is made with chemicals from China, according to US government reports and drug policy experts.
The White House did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.
Vice President JD Vance addressed fentanyl in a January 4 X post, the day before the White House’s post, saying cocaine is “the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela,” and, “Yes, a lot of fentanyl is coming out of Mexico. That continues to be a focus of our policy in Mexico and is a reason why President Trump shut the border on day one.”
Drug experts previously told PolitiFact that Venezuela acts as a transit country for some cocaine trafficking in part because its neighbouring country, Colombia, is the world’s main cocaine producer. However, most of the cocaine that enters the US doesn’t go through Venezuela.
Government reports say fentanyl does not come from Venezuela
The Drug Enforcement Agency’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment reports for years have pointed to Mexico and China as the countries responsible for illicit fentanyl in the US. None of the agency’s reports from 2017 to 2025 list Venezuela as a fentanyl producer or trafficker.
Most illicit fentanyl entered the US via the southern border at official ports of entry, and 83.5 percent of the smugglers in fiscal year 2024 were US citizens.
“There is no evidence of fentanyl or cocaine laced with fentanyl coming from Venezuela or anywhere else in South America,” David Smilde, a Tulane University sociologist who studies violence in Venezuela, told PolitiFact in September.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report also points to Mexico as the country of origin for the most fentanyl seized in the US.
US fentanyl overdose deaths recently have dropped. From May 2024 to April 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 43,000 synthetic opioid deaths, most of which were from fentanyl, down from nearly 70,000 in the previous year.
“The United States has been suffering an enormous overdose crisis driven by opioids and fentanyl in particular in recent years,” John Walsh, director for drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, a group advocating for human rights in the Americas, previously told PolitiFact. “I would say it has zero to do with anything in South America or the Caribbean.”
The Justice Department first indicted Maduro in 2020 for alleged drug-related actions dating to 1999. A newly unsealed and updated indictment filed in the Southern District of New York charges Maduro and two co-defendants with narcoterrorism conspiracy and him, Flores and the four other co-defendants with cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machineguns.
The indictment calls Maduro an illegitimate leader who transported cocaine under Venezuelan law enforcement protection, enriching his family and cementing power.
The 25-page document does not mention fentanyl or fentanyl trafficking.
Our ruling
The Trump White House described Maduro as “flooding America with deadly fentanyl”.
Drug experts and official government and international reports point to Mexico and China as the countries primarily involved in producing and trafficking the illicit fentanyl that reaches the US. The majority of fentanyl in the US comes from Mexico, is made with chemicals from China, and is smuggled by US citizens via official ports of entry at the southern border.
The US Justice Department indicted Maduro on charges related to cocaine. The indictment does not mention fentanyl.
We rate the statement False.
