The Spanish Civil Guard arrested two former Venezuelan diplomats at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport on September 8, accused of smuggling 50 kilos of cocaine into Spain, although the news has only recently gained public attention.
Among those apprehended is Kelvin Jesús Matos Pérez, the former brother-in-law of Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of the ex-dictator of Venezuela imprisoned in New York, as revealed by El Pitazo, information also confirmed by Spanish diplomatic sources to the outlet The Objective.
Who are the detainees?
The first arrested is José Rafael Escorihuela Pereira, who arrived at Barajas from the Dominican Republic carrying a Venezuelan diplomatic passport.
Upon being intercepted, he claimed to be a functioning diplomat in order to evade customs inspection. However, the ruse did not work: agents opened his luggage and found the 50 kilograms of drugs.
Escorihuela was not a minor official.
For years, he was the right-hand man of Coromoto Godoy Calderón, the current permanent representative of Venezuela to the UN, whom he accompanied as minister counselor and deputy head of mission in the Venezuelan embassies in India and Spain.
Sources consulted by El Pitazo indicate that Indian businessmen complained about his handling as a presumed intermediary or lobbyist during that period, claiming to have felt deceived.
When Godoy was appointed Minister of Foreign Trade by Maduro in January 2025, Escorihuela took over that department in Caracas.
In March 2026, with Maduro already imprisoned in New York, the acting president Delcy Rodríguez appointed Godoy as ambassador to the UN, at which point their paths diverged.
The second detainee, Kelvin Jesús Matos Pérez, was also an official at the Venezuelan embassy in Madrid and is related to Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the dictator's son, known as "Nicolasito."
The Civil Guard is investigating whether Matos Pérez acted as an intermediary for Escorihuela in the Spanish capital and if there are more people involved.
The case, which has received little coverage from the Spanish press despite occurring almost three weeks ago when the arrests took place, has been mainly documented by Venezuelan sources, including journalist David Placer.
The route: Venezuela, Santo Domingo, Madrid
According to sources consulted by El Pitazo, Escorihuela is said to have completed five trips always using the same method: he departed from Venezuela on private flights with the drugs, stopped in Santo Domingo, and from there continued to Madrid on commercial flights.
The systematic repetition of that itinerary raised alarms for the Dominican authorities, who shared intelligence information with the Spanish Civil Guard, allowing for monitoring and the arrest at Barajas.
Judicial proceedings remain under strict confidentiality.
The director of El Pitazo, César Batiz, reported that "the Spanish Civil Guard confirmed to El Pitazo that the proceedings remain confidential and therefore no further details could be provided regarding their involvement in the case."
The context: Chavismo and international drug trafficking
The case arises amidst increasing international judicial pressure on the chavismo environment.
Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, and taken to New York, where he faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine importation.
The Southern District of New York Prosecutor's Office expanded the charges to include Nicolasito, who is alleged to have coordinated drug shipments with dissidents of the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN), and to have used state-owned PDVSA planes to transport illegal cargo.
In December 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned: "There are entities engaged in drug trafficking that operate openly and in cooperation with the Maduro regime to send drugs like cocaine to the United States through the Caribbean, creating a very serious security situation in numerous countries."
On September 15, Alex Saab, a frontman for the Chavista regime, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in a federal court in Miami, agreed to forfeit 195 million dollars, and committed to cooperating with the prosecution by providing information about high-ranking Venezuelan officials.
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