The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice rejected an appeal that sought to annul the sentence of 27 years and 6 months in prison imposed on two accused of distributing drugs in Caracas. Such a decision is reflected in sentence 641 written by Judge Maikel Moreno and signed by his colleagues, Carmen Marisela Castro and Elsa Gómez.
The arrest of the defendants occurred on June 17, 2022 on Real de Sarría Street, El Recreo parish, Caracas, where agents of the Bolivarian National Police were carrying out a saturation device. In the middle of this operation, the agents stopped three people who were traveling in a 1973 Chevrolet Chevy, license plate AD557GA.
When the agents searched the vehicle, they located two white cardboard boxes in the trunk, which contained 26 panels of marijuana inside, the sentence says.
For this reason, the agents proceeded to arrest the three occupants of the vehicle, who were identified as Dionisio Antonio Blanco Campos (driver of the car), Erick Enrique Corredor Zambrano (co-pilot) and Samuel José Martínez Calzadilla (sitting in the back seat).
Subsequently, on August 2, 2022, the Public Ministry requested to open a trial against Blanco, Corredor and Martínez because it considers that they are involved in aggravated trafficking of narcotic and psychotropic substances in the forms of transportation and concealment, among other crimes. This approach was approved on August 29, 2022 by the 44th Court of Control of Caracas.
That trial took place between December 14, 2022 and October 10, 2023 before the 10th Trial Court of Caracas, which issued a 15-year prison sentence for the driver of the vehicle where the drugs were transported, Dionisio Campos. While Corredor and Martínez were sentenced to 27 years and 6 months in prison, the TSJ recalled.
On May 21, the Court of Appeals of Caracas confirmed these sentences. In that case, Erick Corredor and Samuel Martínez filed an extraordinary appeal before the highest court of Venezuela where they filed the cassation appeal.
The defense lawyers of Corredor and Calzadilla stated in the aforementioned appeal that the trial court did not evaluate the evidence presented, a situation that was supported by the Court of Appeals, thus incurring a “lack of motivation” when issuing its sentence. The defenders recalled that “motivation is a fundamental requirement of a sentence.”
When analyzing this approach, the magistrates responded that “although they denounce the lack of motivation for the ruling, they do not indicate in a precise and circumstantiated manner how the Court of Appeals incurred such a defect, nor do they indicate how said alleged infractions are capable of modifying or altering the result of the process.”
In the opinion of the magistrates, the lawyers of Corredor and Martínez express in the appeal their disagreement with the sentence issued by the trial court, a situation that should not be aired in an appeal. By revealing this reason, the magistrates accused the defense lawyers of the convicted of trying to “use the Criminal Cassation Chamber as if it were a third instance, which constitutes an error in the recursive technique.” For this reason, they dismiss the appeal and leave the sentence imposed on Calzadilla and Martínez unscathed.
There are 63.1 tons seized
The head of the National Anti-Drug Superintendence, Ferrer Sandrea, stressed that Venezuela continues to be a hostile territory for drug trafficking. He declared on his radio program that “public policies not only focus on interdiction, but also on prevention through cultural and sports activities in schools and communities.” In this sense, he pointed out that as part of the fight against illicit drug trafficking, so far in 2025, 63,129.779 kg of different substances have been seized. “These actions are part of a comprehensive strategy that includes the fight against micro-trafficking and the application of popular intelligence in the communities,” said the head of the National Anti-Drug Superintendency.
