President Trump's very solid advisor on counterterrorism operations, Sebastian Gorka, has obviously been following events in Venezuela very closely, and in a press appearance, outlined in bare-bones form that the anti-narcotrafficking Naval operations in the Caribbean are about more than just its top mission of halting drug trafficking.

He told NewsMax it was also about Venezuela's relationship as the catspaw to the world's top rogue states, directing its audience to take a good look at Iran.

Here is a snippet:

Gorka advised Americans google Venezuela and Iran, which calls to mind Venezuela's close ties with Hezb'allah, with reports that the Iran-backed terrorist organization has actual bases of operation in the Chavista socialist hellhole.

Here's some testimony from a 2011 House hearing:

It is also worth noting that Hezbollah has been operationally active in Latin  America. Most notoriously is the group being implicated in the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and 2 years later at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires, attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians.
 
Regardless of the circumstances which may lead Hezbollah to launch an attack on the homeland, Hezbollah is already working with like-minded allies and hostile regimes in Latin America to  undermine American National security by raising funds,spreading anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda, recruiting operatives, laundering money, and smuggling weapons and drugs, all activities that have a direct impact on the United States homeland security.
    
Moreover, the alliance between one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world, Hezbollah, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism in Iran, a sworn enemy of the United States, and Venezuela, all in the backyard of the United States, when you put that together, you have a fully functioning, easily accessible terrorist network with a ready capacity to act, if so inclined.

Hezb'allah has also been known to traffic in drugs, which may mean it has ties to Venezuela's prison gangs such as Tren de Aragua, which traffic drugs, and to Venezuela's military-government drug cartel, known as the Cartel of the Sun. 

As well-known Israeli terrorism expert Rachel Ehrenfeld once told me: All terrorism is narcoterrorism. She actually coined the term 'narcoterrorism.'

It highlights that there is no separating terrorists from drug dealers, they always end up merged as one in the same. Colombia's FARC and Peru's Shining Path were both sterling examples of this phenomenon. Hezb'allah, which deals drugs, aand is at war with the U.S., would find the perfect landing spot from which to commence operations in Caracas.

Just the fact that cartel gangs of all sorts have set up migrant smuggling networks may easily mean that Venezuela has routes to get its operatives into the United States, which Iran would find useful for its own Hezb'allah operatives.

We know Iranian operatives have been caught at the U.S. border entering illegally, and we know that Chavista thugs have attempted to assassinate then-Sen. Marco Rubio.

The only thing one can conclude here is that the narcowar may be worse than thought, and about much more than interdicting drugs and stoppping smugglers. It may just be about stopping a war or invasion.

I hope Dr. Gorka can share more with us when possible about this threat, particularly when the danger is over.

Image: Screen shot from NewsMax video, via X.