The United States has sanctioned Venezuelan firms that support the acquisition of drones from Iran, targeting two of its major adversaries at the same time.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Venezuelan firm Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA, alleging that the company “maintains and oversees the assembly of” drones from Iran’s Qods Aviation Industries (QAI).
The chief of Empresa Jose Jesus Urdaneta Gonzalez was separately sanctioned for cooperating with Iranian and Venezuelan authorities to produce Iranian drones.
A total of 10 individuals and entities based in Venezuela and Iran have been sanctioned, as noted by the US Treasury in an official statement.
“Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world,” John K. Hurley, the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, was quoted as saying.
Since 2006, Iran and Venezuela have worked on arming the Venezuelan military with Mohajer-class unmanned aerial vehicles rebranded as ANSU-series in Venezuela, the Treasury alleged.
Further, it stated that the EANSA maintains and oversees the assembly of Mohajer-series UAVs in Venezuela and has directly negotiated with QAI, contributing to the Iranian agency’s sale of millions of dollars’ worth of Mohajer-6 UAVs to Venezuela.
The Mohajer-6 is an advanced Iranian ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) drone. Interestingly, an image “visually confirming” the presence of the drone in Venezuela appeared on social media on December 31, 2025, and has been widely shared.
The EurAsian Times could not independently verify the image and accompanying claims.
The US Treasury listed the Mohajer-2 as another drone that is maintained by EANSA and used by the Venezuelan military. It stated that the drone is locally known as Arpia or ANSU-100, and is capable of launching an Iranian-designed Qaem air-to-ground guided bomb.
It was purportedly the first drone manufactured in the Latin American country.
“Iran’s ongoing provision of conventional weapons to Caracas constitutes a threat to US interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the Treasury stated, justifying the sanctions.
Iran and Venezuela share close ties rooted in opposition to US influence and mutual defiance of sanctions. These sanctions come amid escalating U.S.-Venezuela tensions in the Caribbean, including increased US naval presence in the Caribbean.
US-Venezuela Tensions Refuse To Cool Down
Tensions between the US and Venezuela have escalated dramatically, marking the most volatile period in bilateral relations between the two states in decades.
The US launched an aggressive counter-narcotics campaign targeting alleged “narco-terrorist” networks, including a massive military mobilisation. US President Donald Trump has designated Venezuela-based drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and alleged that they are aided by President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump accuses Venezuela of using oil, the country’s main resource, to finance “narcoterrorism, human trafficking, murders, and kidnappings.”
However, Maduro has refuted these allegations, called for peace in the region, and described Trump’s actions as an aggressive push for regime change.
Since September 2025, the US military has conducted more than 30 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea over allegations that they were smuggling drugs into the United States, albeit without furnishing any definite evidence.
The strikes have killed more than 100 people and have been widely condemned by international agencies and rights groups.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration intensified its pressure campaign by announcing a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. Multiple tankers have since been seized or pursued, including one that attempted to evade capture by painting a Russian flag on its hull.
UN human rights experts condemned the blockade as illegal under international law, violating the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force.
However, that did not discourage the US from using aggressive measures. On December 29, 2025, US President Trump said that the US had struck an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known US attack on Venezuelan land.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area … it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”
The strike was reportedly conducted on a remote dock that Washington believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and load them onto boats for onward shipping, according to reports.
When asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said, “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was.”
Nonetheless, it is barely a coincidence that it comes months after Trump authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela in October 2025, and indicated that the country was considering land strikes.
Iran’s Drones Bolster US Enemies
The US Treasury Department placed fresh sanctions on several Iranians it claimed had ties to Iran’s military industry. However, that is hardly surprising, given that it has imposed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) since at least 2020, allegedly for the procurement and sale of arms.
The US imposed multiple rounds of sanctions targeting networks involved in Iran’s supply and transfer of Shahed-class and Mohajer-class drones to Russia, as well as related production and procurement activities.
Between 2024 and 2025, the Treasury sanctioned Iranian entities such as Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), Russian facilities, and third-party networks, including in China, for facilitating drone production.
The United States has expressed frustration with Iran’s drone program, viewing it as a major proliferator of affordable, combat-proven unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that destabilise regions, enable asymmetric warfare, and directly threaten the US and its allies.
Iran has transferred thousands of Shahed-131/136 and Mohajer-6 drones to Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Additionally, Iran’s provision of drone technology to the Houthis has enabled hundreds of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since late 2023, disrupting global trade and forcing costly rerouting. In fact, the Houthis used Iranian drones for strikes on US warships and allies, prompting direct warnings to Tehran.
The US retaliated with airstrikes on Houthi targets from 2024 into 2025, with officials like Treasury’s Brian Nelson stating in 2024 that Iran’s proliferation “destabilizes the region and world.”
Notably, the treasury said the latest sanctions were in furtherance of the National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, which instructs the US government to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program, thwart Iran’s development of other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, deny Iran a nuclear weapon, and deny the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) access to assets and resources that support their destabilising activities.
“We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex access to the U.S. financial system,” Hurley stated.
The move comes months after the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ which ended the 12-day Iran-Israel war that had entered a stalemate.
Incidentally, the latest sanctions follow US President Donald Trump’s threat of more strikes against Iran if the West Asian country rebuilds its missile capabilities or nuclear program.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump said at a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on December 29, 2025. “We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully, that’s not happening.”
