The Spanish Civil Guard arrested on September 8 at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport two former Venezuelan diplomats accused of smuggling 50 kilos of cocaine into Spain, although the news has only gained public attention very recently.
One of those arrested is Kelvin Jesús Matos Pérez, the ex-brother-in-law of Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of the former Venezuelan leader imprisoned in New York, according to information revealed by El Pitazo, information that has also been 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 working diplomat to avoid customs inspection. However, the maneuver did not work: the agents opened his luggage and found the 50 kilograms of narcotics.
Escorihuela was not a minor official. For years, he was the right hand of Coromoto Godoy Calderón, the current permanent representative of Venezuela to the UN, whom he accompanied as minister counselor and deputy head of mission at the Venezuelan embassies in India and Spain.
Sources consulted by El Pitazo indicated that Indian businessmen complained about their handling as a supposed intermediary or lobbyist during that period, claiming to feel deceived.
When Godoy was appointed Minister of Foreign Trade by Maduro in January 2025, Escorihuela took over that office in Caracas.
In March of this year, with Nicolás Maduro already imprisoned in New York, the acting president Delcy Rodríguez appointed Godoy as ambassador to the UN, marking the moment when their paths diverged.
The second detainee, Kelvin Jesús Matos Pérez, was also an official at the Venezuelan embassy in Madrid and has a family connection to Maduro Guerra, the son of the dictator and known as "Nicolasito".
The Civil Guard is investigating whether Matos Pérez acted as an intermediary for Escorihuela in the Spanish capital and whether there are more individuals involved.
The case, which has received little attention from the Spanish press despite occurring nearly three weeks ago, 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 following the same method: he would leave Venezuela on private flights with the drugs, stop in Santo Domingo, and from there continue 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 the monitoring and arrest in Barajas.
The 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 under secrecy and that, for this reason, no further details about their involvement in the case could be provided."
The context: chavismo and international drug trafficking
The case arises amid increasing international judicial pressure on the environment of Chavismo.
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's Attorney's Office expanded the charges to include Nicolasito, who is alleged to have coordinated drug shipments with dissidents from the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN), and to have used planes from the state-owned PDVSA to transport illicit cargo.
In December 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned: "There are entities engaged in drug trafficking that operate openly and with the cooperation of the Maduro regime to send drugs like cocaine to the United States via the Caribbean, creating a very serious security situation in many countries."
On September 15th, Alex Saab, a frontman for the Chavista regime, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money 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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