"After the gun-smuggling snafu by [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] U.S. federal agents on what's known as Operation Fast and Furious, more political leaders are finding it easier to make outrageous accusations against the United States," said Iris Aquino, a former NYPD police official.
"The [Fast and Furious] scandal gives Maduro's accusation against the DEA more credibility than it would otherwise enjoy," she added.
French officials interdicted almost a ton-and-a-half of cocaine from a commercial flight from Caracas, Venezuela to Paris, France, on Sept. 11, 2013. The confiscated cocaine shipment is believed to be worth upwards of $270 million (U.S. currency) on American streets, according to Langher.
During his visit to the Bolivarian National Guard base in Caracas, Maduro promised that such an occurrence would not be repeated in his country.
"The people responsible are imprisoned here in Venezuela. It's something that should not have happened. Drug trafficking has great power and this incident is being used as a political weapon to label Venezuela as a 'narco-state'. I would not be surprised if the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration) is behind this. We're investigating to see if this was done by the DEA through mafias," Maduro said in a speech.
"Wherever the DEA is, there are drugs, and what this looks to have been is a controlled handover of drugs," he alleged.
Maduro claimed that the DEA is "a true transnational drug trafficking agency," and alleges that the drug traffickers involved in this case are "friends of the [U.S.] drug enforcement agents."
Venezuela stopped working with the DEA during the Hugo Chavez presidency, when in 2005 Chavez accused the DEA of infiltrating Venezuela's narcotics enforcement units.
Despite spending tens of millions of U.S. dollars on surveillance along its northern and southern borders, the United States failed to interdict the tons of drugs entering the U.S., Maduro claims.
"U.S. agencies will accuse us of being a 'narco-state', but we fight drug trafficking. This is a campaign to morally attack our armed forces," he said.
Venezuelan authorities have arrested 23 people, three members of Venezuela's security forces were arrested, a first lieutenant from the anti-drug unit of the Bolivarian National Guard" along with two National Guard sergeants,in connection with the 1.3 tonnes of cocaine French police found aboard an Air France flight that originated in Caracas.
The six suspects come from two European countries, Italy and the UK, adding that the smuggling was most likely organized by the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia said to be behind 80 percent of the cocaine trade in Europe.