the Syrian Salvation Government and extradited to Italy by November. Law enforcement officers calculate that seized captagon constitute merely around 5-10% of total exports originating from Syria in 2021, indicating the presence of a thriving drug industry worth atleast 57 billion dollars, an amount ten times greater than the regime's yearly budget. United Kingdom The United Kingdom has been called the first ever narco-state: thanks to the Opium Wars, the UK became a powerful force in the traffic of illegal drugs in the mid to late 19th century. Venezuela More recently, Venezuela has been labeled a narco-state, due to the relations between some Venezuelan government officials to drug cartels and criminal factions all across Latin America. For example, former vice president of Venezuela Tareck el Aissami has been accused of supporting drug trafficking and helping Mexican drug cartels. El Aissami has been sanctioned by the United States since 2017. The nephews and sons of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro are also being accused of financing drug trades and being involved in the Narcosobrinos affair. In November 2017, the United States's UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused Venezuela of being a "dangerous narco-state". See also Crack epidemic in the United States Mafia state Narco-submarine Narcokleptocracy Philippine Drug War State Sponsors of Terrorism (U.S. list) Notes References Further reading External links "The Economics of Cocaine Capitalism" by Rensselaer Lee, COSMOS Journal, 1996 Capitalism Illegal drug trade Drug policy Oligarchy