After President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes to take out three of Iran’s nuclear facilities in late June, defense officials warned that Tehran may have the ability to strike back – from inside the US Homeland.
Indeed, the Islamic Republic and its proxy forces in the Middle East, namely Hezbollah and Hamas, have long sought to plant terrorist sleeper agents, poised to activate when called upon, in American communities.
Now there is new evidence of how this suspected Iranian campaign may have operated – and the signs point to close coordination with Tehran’s closest ally in the Western hemisphere: Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The Daily Mail has exclusively obtained a list revealing an alleged international scheme to provide Venezuelan passports to potential terrorists.
These passports would grant individuals the ability to travel, without a visa in certain instances, from the Middle East to South America. Then, according to national security experts, these people could taken advantage of the Biden Administration’s lawless southern border and crossed illegally into the US alongside approximately 10 million illegal immigrants from 2020 to 2024.
‘Over the past four years – until we got the border locked down – it’s been much more likely for [Iran] to develop relationships with Venezuela and get people here, get them in place, and get them supplied and ready to go,’ Jonathan Gilliam, counterterrorism analyst and former FBI agent, told the Daily Mail.
Concerningly, Gilliam warned that the probability of Iranian attacks on US soil is now ‘high’ following the June strikes.
Some elements of this alleged Venezuelan-Iranian scheme has been previously reported and date back to former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s regime (1999-2013).
As far back as 2006, a US State Department report warned that, ‘Venezuelan travel and identification documents are extremely easy to obtain by persons not entitled to them.’
According to national security experts, people could taken advantage of the Biden Administration’s lawless southern border and crossed illegally into the US alongside approximately 10 million illegal immigrants from 2020 to 2024 (Pictured: Venezuelan migrants on Texas border in September 2023)
There is new evidence of how this suspected Iranian campaign may have operated – and the signs point to close coordination with Tehran’s closest ally in the Western hemisphere: Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro (pictured)
Then in 2017, CNN interviewed a Venezuelan whistleblower, Misael Lopez, who served as legal adviser to the Venezuelan Embassy in Iraq. Lopez claimed that he found a list containing 21 Arabic names with corresponding Venezuelan passport numbers and Venezuelan identification numbers.
Now, the never-before-seen list obtained by the Daily Mail outlines the potential scope of the alleged operation.
The document contains the passport numbers, names, ages, birth dates, genders and countries of origin of individuals allegedly given Venezuelan citizenship even though they would not otherwise qualify for it. The list shows that more than 10,400 people from Iran, Syria and Lebanon were given passports from 2010 through 2019.
Approximately two-thirds of the people on the list are male. The average age is over 60-years-old, but one recipient is listed as just two-years-old when they were issued a supposedly illegal passport. The child would know be approaching their 10th birthday this October.
The document was compiled over the last decade by a former Venezuelan official, who worked in the internal investigations branch of the Venezuelan government. The Daily Mail is not disclosing his identity.
The source’s position in the Venezuelan government and their knowledge of the subject was confirmed by former US Ambassador to Venezuela James Story, who served during Trump’s first term.
Story told the Daily Mail that the source has ‘exquisite insights’ into the Venezuelan passport issuance operation and Story claims that he has also relayed his similar concerns to the US government.
‘The regime in Venezuela has been destabilizing to the region in a number of ways, including credible allegations of the Maduro regime providing travel documents and passports to people of questionable intent from countries such as Iran, Syria, Lebanon,’ Story said.
‘The real threat comes from Iran,’ he continued.
Story agreed that the alleged Venezuelan-Iranian scheme could potentially allow hostile actors easy access to the Western hemisphere.
Israel and Iran exchanged hundreds of strikes in June 2025 before Trump decided to carry out a three-target attack to back up US allies in the Middle East
The Islamic Republic and its proxy forces in the Middle East, namely Hezbollah and Hamas, have long sought to plant terrorist sleeper agents, poised to activate when called upon, in American communities
Between January 2021 and October 2023 – during Biden’s term – US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded encounters with more than 380,000 Venezuelan nationals coming over the US-Mexico border – making Venezuelans one of the top nationalities among border crossers.
In that same period, CBP reported encounters at the southwest border with 382 individuals on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist. They also apprehended 1,504 Iranian nationals illegally, though most of them were released into the country to await immigration proceedings.
The FBI stressed to the Daily Mail that they are directing field offices to assist DHS with immigration enforcement and provide reports on notable arrests. They also noted the agency’s sharpened counterterrorism after the strikes in Iran in June.
The Venezuelan source of the list told the Daily Mail that he handed the document to the Department of Homeland Security months ago and claimed they are working to ‘hunt down’ people on the list.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for DHS said that they did not know if the Department had received the list and did not comment on whether the agency is tracking the threat of sleeper cell agents traveling on Venezuelan passports. The Daily Mail, however, reviewed an email showing correspondence about the list between the source and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) embassy liaison.
A State Department official also would not confirm or deny that they had in their possession the identities of thousands of bad actors who allegedly came to the West through Venezuela in the last decade and a half. The Department did acknowledge: ‘It’s been widely reported ties the [Maduro] dictatorship has with Iran. It’s not a secret that Tehran and Caracas have ties.’
Thor Halvorssen, a former Venezuelan Ambassador for anti-Narcotic Affairs in the administration of former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, told the Daily Mail that he believes the passports were all either issued or signed-off on by former Venezuelan’s acting Ambassador in Syria, Ghazi Nasr Al-Din.
Between January 2021 and October 2023 – during Biden’s term – US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded encounters with more than 380,000 Venezuelan nationals coming over the US-Mexico border (Pictured: Venezuelan migrants wait in a line at a migrant processing center in Denver in May 2023)
Thor Halvorssen, former Venezuelan Ambassador for anti-Narcotic Affairs, pulled the curtain back on the operation
Halvorssen also claimed that it was Ghazi Nasr Al-Din (pictured) who signed off on these passport issuances. Al-Din served for years as the acting head of the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus, Syria
In January 2015, the FBI Miami field office added Al-Din to the terror watch list, claiming he had ‘met with senior Hezbollah officials in Lebanon to discuss operational issues, as well as facilitated the travel of Hezbollah members to and from Venezuela.’
The FBI also accused Al-Din of having ‘counseled Hezbollah donors on fundraising efforts and has provided donors with specific information on bank accounts where the donors’ deposits would go directly to Hezbollah.’
For their part, the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus, Syria has denied to the Daily Mail that any illegal passports were issued through their office.
‘These accusations are false,’ the Embassy said, in part, in a statement. ‘Terrorism and terrorists are elsewhere. Venezuela is a country and a territory of peace and love,’ the unattributed statement claims.
Halvorssen, who is now president of the Human Rights Foundation, told the Daily Mail he believes that ‘thousands’ of Venezuelan passport holders ‘have already made their way into the United States or are traveling the world as Venezuelan citizens, but they’re actually from Iran, Syria and Lebanon.’
‘They are everywhere,’ Halvorssen insisted. ‘They have regular jobs. Some of them are driving Uber, some of them are in the finance field, some of them are working at a bank, some of them could be working for TSA. We don’t f***ing know.’
Asked if President Trump’s decision to conduct a three-target strike on Iran this summer would ‘wake up’ any sleeper cells, Halvorssen said that he fears, ‘sleeper cells are fully awake and operational.’