Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were captured by US forces on Saturday, after Donald Trump he arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York on Saturday evening local time for the green operation.
Videos posted on social media showed a handcuffed Maduro getting off the plane before being escorted into the hangar by dozens of security personnel.
Maduro and his wife, who have been indicted on several charges including alleged “drug trafficking and narco-terrorist plots,” will be flown from a hanger to a helicopter in a New York prison cell.
Trump said Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full force of American justice and stand trial on American soil” for their alleged role in drug trafficking.
The Venezuelan president and his wife are currently being flown to New York, with authorities to decide later whether the trial will take place in New York or Florida.
What are the charges against Maduro and his wife?
Shortly after the capture of the Venezuelan president by the United States, which was condemned by the international community, US Attorney Pam Bondi praised Trump for “having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American people” and listed charges against Maduro and his wife.
“Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro was charged with narco-terrorist conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States,” Bondi wrote in a post on X Bondi.
The detailed indictment alleges that since 1999, Maduro and his co-defendants worked with international drug-trafficking organizations, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas, Colombian narco-terrorist groups and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, to ship illegal drugs to the US.
It goes on to allege that Venezuela’s political elite, including Maduro and his wife, enriched themselves through said smuggling operations while protecting drug traffickers and providing logistical support.
The 25-page indictment also details specific actions allegedly taken by the Maduro administration.
For example, it claims that when Maduro served as Venezuela’s foreign minister from 2006 to 2008, he sold diplomatic passports and arranged private flights “to help traffickers trying to move drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela under diplomatic cover.”
The indictment goes on to allege that Maduro and his wife have been trafficking cocaine seized by Venezuelan authorities for years, adding that the couple had their own state-sponsored gangs to protect their operation and that they ordered “kidnappings, beatings and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trade.”
The new indictment adds to the charges against Maduro and other Venezuelan officials that were announced during Trump’s first presidency in March 2020.
Maduro denied the initial accusations before his capture on Saturday.
