Venezuela's First Lady claims DEA kidnapped her nephews when they were caught trafficking drugs

'We have evidence that the DEA was here on Venezuelan territory violating our sovereignty and committing crimes in our territory.'

Venezuela's First Lady, Cilia Flores, believes the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) committed crimes in her country, including the kidnap of two of her nephews, who were discovered to be drug traffickers.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - On Tuesday Flores announced that her nephews Franqui Flores de Freitas and Efrain Campo Flores were arrested in Haiti in November by the DEA.

Despite evidence indicating the Flores men were involved in trafficking cocaine, the First Lady has accused the DEA of kidnapping her nephews and for committing crimes in Venezuela.

"We have evidence that the DEA was here on Venezuelan territory violating our sovereignty and committing crimes on our territory," Flores replied to reporters after being asked about the scandal. 

"The DEA committed the crime of kidnapping, which the [legal] defence [sic] will prove," she added.

The Flores men were indicted in New York on charges of conspiring to traffic cocaine. The men were discovered after meeting with a DEA informant in Honduras and asked for help to ship nearly 1,764 pounds (800 kilos) of the drug into the United States and Europe.

Socialist Party officials believe the Flores men have been falsely abducted and that the accusations are an attempt to highlight the improvements in drug interceptions since the expulsion of the DEA in 2005.

"They have tried to link high-ranking government officials to make it look like Venezuela is complacent with the drug trade, and it turns out that major drug traffickers are arrested here," Flores stated.

The men appeared in Manhattan federal court for their arraignment in December 2015 and, if they receive the maximum sentence, can spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Their next hearing is set for February 29.

Around the time of the hearing, authorities revealed two high-ranking military officials were named and accused of working with cocaine traffickers. The information led Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino to denounce what he called a "smear campaign against the Bolivarian Armed Forces."

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry accused the United States of "judicial terrorism."

A statement clarified, "Venezuela expresses its deepest rejection of U.S. foreign policy which, through judicial and police terrorism conducted by national agencies and through global media campaigns, pursues, threatens and pressures the exercise of authority in Venezuela."

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