Trump has sent warships to battle Venezuela’s ‘Soles’ cartel. But it may not even exist.

Trump has sent warships to battle Venezuela’s ‘Soles’ cartel. But it may not even exist.

US President Donald Trump has deployed five warships and thousands of soldiers towards Venezuela to deal with the ‘Cartel de los Soles’. But such a drug cartel may not even exist as there is no independent evidence of an organised group with a defined hierarchy that goes by that name.

This handout photo released by the US Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely in the Red Sea on June 7, 2024. It is one of the warships deployed towards Venezuela for counternarcotics operations. (Photo: DVIDS/AFP)