Unauthorized emails unveil that Belize serves as a major transit hub for drug flights originating from Venezuela

Unauthorized emails unveil that Belize serves as a major transit hub for drug flights originating from Venezuela

A former U.S. official told OCCRP that drug flights from Venezuela often re-routed to Belize when traffickers became suspicious that they could be busted in Guatemala or Honduras.

Private jets spent years flying regularly from Venezuela to Belize to deliver drugs that were then being shipped onward to the U.S., according to leaked emails from the Mexican defense ministry.

The emails include at least 70 alerts sent from American to Mexican authorities about drug flights in 2020 and 2021 that landed in Belize. The flights all originated at airstrips near Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo. 

CNN reported in 2019 on a sharp increase of flights around that time from Venezuela to Central America, but their investigation focused on Honduras and Guatemala. The alerts naming Belize as a major destination for drug flights have not previously been made public. 

The alerts were found among leaked emails from the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense, which were obtained by the information activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets and shared with OCCRP.

Mexico’s defense ministry declined to comment on the leaked emails. The Belize ministries of defense and foreign affairs did not respond to requests for comment about drug flights to the country.

The “air bridge” between Venezuela and Central America is still in operation today, according to U.S. officials.

However, a former U.S. official who was involved in anti-narcotics efforts in the region told OCCRP that many traffickers shifted to different routes in 2020, when a law enforcement operation shut down a network providing them with air transport.

“After weeks and months, they started sending planes again, but they were no longer at the volume we were seeing before,” said Jesús Romero, a former naval officer who was stationed in Guatemala between 2017 and 2022.

Romero was involved in the investigation into Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, an American who purchased aircraft and registered them under foreign companies. Several planes were used by criminal groups in Central and South America, as well as Mexico, “to smuggle large quantities of cocaine destined for the United States,” according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Mercer-Erwin was sentenced last November to 16 years in prison. After her arrest in 2020, many traffickers looked away from Central America as a staging ground to ship cocaine onward, Romero said.

“That’s why they redirected trafficking toward Europe via Africa, using planes now departing Venezuela for Guyana and Suriname,” he added.

Traffickers are also using seaborne routes, according to the U.S. government, which recently deployed its navy in force to the Venezuelan coast. The administration of President Donald Trump says it has destroyed three alleged drug vessels off Venezuela, the latest on September 19, killing at least 17 people in total. 

Amnesty International said the attacks may amount to “extrajudicial execution,” while some Democratic and Republican senators also questioned their legality.

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly said last month that traffickers are still using an “air bridge” to Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Romero told OCCRP that most drug flights were destined for Honduras and Guatemala during his time stationed in Central America, where he acted as a liaison between the U.S. and regional security forces.

“Belize was simply a transit point when the pressure became too intense for the air bridge operations in Guatemala,” he said.  

The alerts found among emails leaked from the Mexican defense ministry suggest that happened quite often — almost one flight was reported to arrive in Belize every five days during 2020 and 2021. 

The Trump administration on September 15 named Belize as a major transit country for drug shipments to the U.S..