Leaked emails from the Mexican defense ministry have revealed that private aircraft frequently transported narcotics from Venezuela to Belize over several years, with the drugs then being moved onward to the United States.
The communications contain at least 70 warnings sent by American authorities to Mexican officials about drug flights that landed in Belize during 2020 and 2021. All these flights took off from airstrips near Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city.
While a 2019 CNN report highlighted a surge in flights from Venezuela to Central America, it focused on Honduras and Guatemala. The alerts specifically naming Belize as a key destination for drug flights have not been disclosed previously.
The messages were part of a larger cache of leaked emails from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense, obtained by the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets and shared with investigative journalists. Mexico’s defense ministry declined to comment on the breach, and Belize’s defense and foreign affairs ministries did not respond to inquiries about the flights.
According to U.S. officials, this “air bridge” between Venezuela and Central America remains active today. However, a former U.S. official involved in regional anti-narcotics efforts noted that many traffickers altered their routes in 2020 after law enforcement dismantled a network providing air transport.
“After weeks and months, they resumed sending planes, but not at the same volume as before,” said Jesús Romero, a former naval officer stationed in Guatemala from 2017 to 2022.
Romero worked on the investigation into Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, an American who bought aircraft and registered them under foreign firms. Several of these planes were used by criminal groups in Central and South America and Mexico to smuggle large amounts of cocaine to the U.S., according to the Internal Revenue Service. Mercer-Erwin received a 16-year prison sentence last November.
Following her arrest in 2020, many traffickers shifted away from Central America as a staging point, Romero explained. “That’s why they redirected trafficking toward Europe via Africa, using planes now departing Venezuela for Guyana and Suriname.”
Traffickers are also employing maritime routes, prompting the U.S. government to deploy its navy off the Venezuelan coast. The Trump administration claims it has destroyed three suspected drug vessels near Venezuela, the most recent on September 19, resulting in at least 17 deaths. Amnesty International has suggested these attacks may constitute “extrajudicial execution,” and some Democratic and Republican senators have questioned their legality.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly stated last month that traffickers continue using an “air bridge” to Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Romero noted that during his time in Central America, most drug flights were headed to Honduras and Guatemala. “Belize was simply a transit point when pressure became too intense for air bridge operations in Guatemala,” he said.
The leaked alerts suggest such diversions occurred frequently, with nearly one flight reported arriving in Belize every five days during 2020 and 2021. On September 15, the Trump administration designated Belize as a major transit country for drug shipments to the U.S.