Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who, according to the State Department, leads the Cartel de los Soles, beside member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang in an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images; Edward Romero)
"We don't know all of what has come into the country during the Biden administration and the open border policies they pursued, but certainly there's been a lot of latitude for the cartels," she said.
Coates added that the Trump administration is well aware of these threats and is on high alert for any possible reprisals from cartels or forces supporting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. government has repeatedly linked Maduro to cartel activity. In November, the State Department designated the Cartel de los Soles, allegedly headed by Maduro, a foreign terrorist organization. According to the administration, the Cartel de los Soles "provides material support" to other terrorist organizations known to be in the U.S., including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, both of which have been behind several high-profile violent crime incidents across the country. In 2024, members of Tren de Aragua allegedly seized control of an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, and were terrorizing and extorting the residents.
In late November, Trump delivered a stern ultimatum to Maduro to leave Venezuela immediately before announcing the country's airspace should be closed, according to the Miami Herald. According to the outlet, Washington's warning was delivered in a phone call with Caracas and offered guaranteed evacuation for Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and their son, but only if the dictator agreed to resign on the spot.
Maduro, in turn, framed the escalation as "imperialist" aggression from the U.S. and vowed that "if the empire attacks us, we will defend every inch of our territory."
This resistance could also manifest within the U.S., according to Coates, especially with the known presence of Venezuelan organized crime groups in the country.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS BACK TRUMP'S VENEZUELA MOVES FOR NOW AS ESCALATION UNCERTAINTY LOOMS
17 members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang and members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 31, 2025. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country's infamous mega-prison at CECOP facility prison. (El Salvador Press Presidency Office/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"This is a new kind of threat, a drug cartel that is associated with a foreign government," she said. "That's why the president is taking the actions that he has."
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"The administration [has] kind of [been] feeling their way a little bit to figure out how to get after this threat. But they're the first ones who have actually confronted it, and I think it's critically important," she said.
"What I think is critical for the American people to realize is this has morphed internationally into something that's more than a drug enforcement issue," Coates added. "We're losing 100,000 citizens a year to the drugs that are coming in. Everyone knows fentanyl; it’s also record amounts of cocaine that are coming out of Venezuela. And it's gone from being a nuisance to being a major national security threat."
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/violent-retaliation-against-us-citizens-possible-venezuela-conflict-expert-warns