In 2015 the term “narco-nephews” went viral. Everyone in Venezuela was talking about two young people who were unknown at the time, It was about the nephews of the presidential couple, Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Florit is.
(Also read: Venezuela and the US exchange prisoners: released nephews of Cilia Flores)
Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas were arrested in Haiti on November 10, 2015 by agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and immediately extradited to the United States. They were accused of drug trafficking.
The scandal shook Chavismo, which limited itself to not commenting on it. However, they hired lawyers to defend the young men, who were sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for importing and distributing 800 kilos of cocaine in the United States.
In court in New York and before Judge Paul Crotty, Campos Flores and Flores de Freitas said words of gratitude for the treatment received in the United States.
Of Efrain Campos Flores it is known that he was raised by Maduro and his wife. The president is also his godfather. The young man, according to newspaper publications, was a director of the company Transportes Herfra, registered in Panama.
He is married to Jessair Rodríguez and has two children. Also was on the payroll of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2015, before the triumph of the opposition in parliament.
Franqui Francisco Flores ands son of a brother of Cilia Flores. Little is known about him, but in the trial it was learned that he made several trips supposedly linked to drug trafficking.
In court, an audio was presented in which it was evident that the accused had power over the presidential hangar at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, supposedly to be able to transport illicit substances.
At trial, both men said that they worked repairing cell phones and that they always had a modest life in popular areas of Caracas.
ANA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
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