NEW YORK _ The Trump administration is preparing sanctions against Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who's been under investigation for years by U.S. authorities for alleged participation in drug trafficking and money laundering, according to two people familiar with the matter.
El Aissami would be the highest-ranking Venezuelan official hit by U.S. sanctions. The penalties are still in the works but could be issued by the Treasury Department early this week, according to one person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The move would put El Aissami on Treasury's "Specially Designated Nationals" list. People on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. citizens are generally prohibited from dealing with them, according to the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. El Aissami has consistently denied all accusations of drug trafficking and money laundering.
The sanctions mark an extraordinary step against the second-in-command of a foreign government and are sure to lead to a further deterioration in U.S. relations with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who appointed El Aissami as vice president on Jan. 4 amid a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis.
El Aissami, the son of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants, has long been one of Venezuela's most controversial and feared politicians. In just over a decade, the 42-year-old climbed government ranks from a student leader in rural Venezuela, to interior minister, to his previous post as the governor of Aragua state.
The White House had no immediate comment.
His ascent prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers to call last week for further measures against Maduro's government. In a Feb. 8 letter to President Donald Trump, 34 members of Congress including Sens. Ted Cruz and Robert Menendez cited El Aissami's appointment and urged the U.S. to "take immediate action to sanction regime officials."
In the weeks since becoming vice president, El Aissami was granted wide-reaching decree powers by Maduro, who tapped him to lead a newly formed "commando unit" against alleged coup plotters and officials suspected of treason. Among the slew of arrests since the unit's formation is a substitute legislator from a hard-line opposition party and a retired general who, years before, broke ranks with the government.
The U.S. move would worsen a relationship long strained by mistrust and Venezuelan accusations that Washington supported a failed attempt to overthrow then-President Hugo Chavez in 2002. In the years following the attempted coup, Chavez aggressively criticized U.S. ties to Latin America, helped lead rallies around South America against "Yankee aggression" and nationalized investments by companies including U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp.
Even under former U.S. President Barack Obama, who generally avoided engaging publicly with Chavez or Maduro, ties remained strained. In March 2015, Obama expanded U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan officials and declared worsening relations with the South American nation to be a national emergency as Maduro attempted to stifle dissent.
With the drop in oil prices that began in 2014, Venezuela's economy collapsed. A nation that just a few decades ago was the wealthiest in Latin America has become synonymous with dysfunction, with consumers forced to wait in hourslong lines for basic goods, including medicine. An informal inflation index compiled by Bloomberg shows that prices are rising at nearly 1,200 percent annually, the fastest rate in the world.
It is in this context that El Aissami, nicknamed "the narco of Aragua" by Venezuela's beleaguered opposition, has thrived. Critics allege he has used his vast political network to help turn the country into an international hub for drugs. The State Department, in its 2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, described the Caribbean nation as a "major cocaine transit country," citing "endemic corruption throughout commerce and government, including law enforcement."
The vice president's ties to the nation's civil registry services before he became interior minister have also fueled accusations by U.S. investigators that he's aided Middle Eastern extremists by allowing them to create Venezuelan identities and a web of front companies to move money outside the country's borders.
El Aissami has previously denied all allegations of ties to drug trafficking, saying they are little more than media slander, and has offered to hand himself over to authorities if anyone could produce proof.
El Aissami has been investigated by the Homeland Security Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration since at least 2011 for alleged money laundering to the Middle East, specifically Lebanon, according to two people familiar with the probe.
As the No. 2 official in Venezuela, El Aissami would be in line to replace Maduro should he cede to opposition pressure to step aside because of the country's economic implosion and social unrest. Maduro has so far quashed the opposition's attempt to hold a referendum on his removal before his term ends in about two years.
