US Treasury Slaps New Sanctions on Maduro Nephews, Oil Shipping Network

The Trump administration intensified its pressure campaign against the Venezuelan regime on Thursday, December 11, 2025, by imposing a fresh round of sweeping sanctions. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explicitly targeted three nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife, a regime-linked businessman, and a network of six shipping companies and six associated vessels moving Venezuelan oil. This action directly follows the seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, cementing a coordinated effort to dismantle the financial lifelines of what the US calls a “corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.
Targeting the Maduro-Flores Inner Circle
The new sanctions list strikes at the heart of the Maduro-Flores family network, including two of the most notorious figures in Venezuela’s drug trafficking circles:
* Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas: These two nephews of First Lady Cilia Flores, widely known as the “narco-nephews,” were previously arrested in 2015 and convicted in 2016 for narco-trafficking. They were released in a prisoner exchange in 2022 during the previous administration’s diplomatic efforts. Treasury officials stated they have resumed drug trafficking activities since returning to Venezuela.
* Carlos Erik Malpica Flores: The third nephew of Cilia Flores was also sanctioned. His designation had been removed in 2022 in an effort to promote negotiations for democratic elections but was reimposed on Thursday.
* Ramon Carretero Napolitano: The Panamanian businessman was sanctioned for engaging in “lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime” and facilitating oil shipments, as well as having business dealings with the Maduro-Flores family.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that these sanctions “undo the Biden Administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro” and hold the regime accountable for flooding the US with drugs.
Disrupting the Illicit Oil Lifeline
The second major component of the sanctions targets the “shadow fleet” used to move sanctioned Venezuelan crude oil globally:
* Shipping Companies and Vessels: OFAC designated six shipping companies and six associated vessels that were using deceptive and unsafe practices to move Venezuelan oil. These tankers, which include the H. Constance and the Lattafa, are primarily supertankers that recently loaded crude oil in Venezuela.
* Financial Impact: The sanctions deny these entities access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S., effectively barring U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with them.
This action is closely timed with Wednesday’s seizure of the Guyana-flagged oil tanker Skipper off the coast of Venezuela, an unprecedented move that the Venezuelan government denounced as “an act of international piracy”. The sanctions and seizure combined are designed to choke off the financial avenues that fuel Maduro’s corrupt regime and its narcotics operations.