This file photo taken on January 31, 2017 shows Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami gesturing during a rally with workers of PDVSA state-owned oil company in Caracas. El Aissami hit back at the United States on February 14, 2017 for labeling him a
Caracas: Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami hit back Tuesday at the United States for labeling him a drug kingpin and slapping sanctions on him, calling the accusations a "vile attack."
"I take this miserable and vile attack as recognition of my status as an anti-imperialist revolutionary," El Aissami, the heir apparent to Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, wrote on Twitter.
The US Treasury Department on Monday accused El Aissami and an ally, businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, of being major cocaine traffickers and froze their US assets.
It said El Aissami protected and oversaw large shipments of drugs from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States while serving as the country's interior minister and governor of Aragua state.
El Aissami was allegedly in the pay of Venezuelan drug kingpin Walid Makled Garcia to protect shipments, and coordinated them with Mexico's violent Los Zetas cartel, the Treasury said.
"Let's not let these vile provocations distract us. Our main job is to accompany Nicolas Maduro in (Venezuela's) economic recovery," El Aissami tweeted.
"We must concentrate on the revolutionary government's priorities: economic recovery and growth and guaranteeing PEACE and social happiness."
He added a shout-out to late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor and the man who launched Venezuela on the path of socialist "revolution" -- and a diplomatic collision course with the "imperialist" United States -- in 1999.
"Long live CHAVEZ!!" he wrote.
Private jet, luxury condos
The US sanctions cast a dark shadow over El Aissami, 42, who became the troubled South American country's vice president on January 4.
El Aissami, who was born in Merida state, served as a minister under Chavez.
He made a name for himself in Venezuela by cracking down on drug gangs. But he has also helped Maduro take action against the political opposition.
In a January 31 decree, Maduro granted El Aissami expansive new powers to seize property and approve ministers' budgets.
Venezuela is lurching through an economic nightmare of food shortages and hyperinflation brought on by low prices for its key export, oil.
Maduro, whose popularity has fallen to 20 percent, is fending off opposition attempts to oust him.
He blames the economic crisis on what he calls a capitalist conspiracy backed by Washington. Opponents blame the failure of an oil-dependent socialist economic model.
El Aissami is currently next in line in the event Maduro is forced to resign or removed in a recall referendum.
The US Treasury said the new sanctions were part of a multi-year investigation and unrelated to El Aissami's recent promotion to vice president.
"The message in this designation is not a political one," said a senior US administration official in a briefing for journalists. "It is about international narcotics trafficking."
Thirteen companies belonging to Lopez Bello were also listed for sanctions.
The US called the businessman a "key frontman" and money launderer for El Aissami.
The US did not say whether it is seeking the arrest and extradition of either man, but the official said the evidence against them was very strong.
The sanctions freeze their assets on US territory, and also ban US citizens and entities from doing business with either man or the 13 companies.
Officials said they had frozen assets worth tens of millions of dollars, including a private jet and what appeared to be several luxury condos in Miami controlled by Lopez Bello.
