Yet the five Venezuelan National Guard soldiers led by Sub-Lieutenant Douglas Maldonado are outnumbered and outpaced. Their work is mainly preventative, they patrol only three times a week, and they almost never capture any drugs, despite Paria being one of the world's trafficking hotspots.

"They have faster craft than us," Maldonado, 23, said from the recently refitted boat on the coast of Paria which juts out from Venezuela to just 11 km (6.8 miles) from Trinidad and Tobago.

Washington accuses Venezuela of leniency in the drugs fight and collusion with Colombian rebels financed by smuggling. Hurt by a blockade on sales of U.S. military equipment and spare parts to Caracas, the government of President Hugo Chavez recently bought millions of dollars worth of radar and other gear from China. Authorities have also captured a significant number of alleged traffickers and "capos."

"Venezuela has a PR interest -- it does not want to be seen as a country that facilitates the drugs trade. New purchases and new initiatives are part of this trend," said Anna Gilmour, crime expert at Jane's Intelligence Review.

Chavez may also be worried the corrosive power of cartels could weaken his anti-U.S. socialist revolution.

Venezuela's drug-fighting capacity took a big blow when relations between the United States and Chavez soured. In 2005, after the U.S. withdrew its radar systems and imposed an embargo on arms sales, Chavez stopped cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We had no radars -- we were left blind," Venezuela's anti-drugs chief Nestor Reverol told Reuters.

The United Nations estimates 40 percent of cocaine that reaches Europe now passes through Venezuela, much of it shipped first to Africa. A big drop in traffic to Africa and Europe in 2008 is largely due to a small Colombian coca crop that year.

Drugs experts also talk about a bubble effect, as a Colombian clampdown backed by $8 billion in U.S. aid pushes traffickers to seek new routes and locations for laboratories.

Chavez is trying to claw back lost ground against the smugglers, some say belatedly, with new Chinese radars and jets, proposed laws to shoot down suspected drug flights, a tax on companies for funds, and plans for special drugs tribunals.

Some European diplomats in Venezuela praise Reverol, but he has a long way to go before the traffickers are suppressed.

Venezuela's reputation as a key link on the global drugs trade was enhanced in November with the discovery of a burned out Boeing 727 jet containing traces of cocaine on a patch of Mali's desert frequented by militants with links to al Qaeda. The United Nations says the jet hopscotched around Latin America and stopped to pick up fuel in Venezuela.

Wedged between the world's top cocaine producer Colombia and the islands of the Caribbean, Venezuela has long been a conduit for the drug. How much now gets through is hotly disputed, with the United States saying shipments rose five-fold from 2004, to 250 tonnes in 2007. Reverol puts the annual number below 50 tonnes.

Venezuela said it seized 28 tonnes of cocaine last year, down from 34 in 2008. In 2005 it confiscated 58 tonnes.

The U.S. blockade on selling Venezuela military equipment led to the cancellation of a deal to buy a fleet of Tucan renaissance jets from Brazil as they featured U.S. electronics. Two dozen Chinese planes with similar specifications arrive in January and 10 Chinese radars are now mostly up and running.