Washington cited Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's alleged role in the "Cartel de los Soles" as it dispatched five warships and thousands of Marines toward the Caribbean country for an anti-drug deployment.

While some of US President Donald Trump's right-wing led allies in South America -- Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay -- have echoed his designation of "Soles" as a terrorist organization, many have doubts such a group even exists.

Venezuela itself, and neighbor Colombia, insist there is no such thing as "Cartel de los Soles."

Some experts agree, saying there is no evidence of the existence of an organized group with a defined hierarchy that goes by that name.

- View from the US -

The Trump administration in July described the "Cartel de los Soles" as a "Venezuela-based criminal

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