NEW YORK – A U.S. Justice Department indictment was unsealed in federal court in New York, charging recently captured Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy, weapons charges, and cocaine-importation conspiracy.
The charges follow President Donald Trump’s announcement of a military operation early Saturday in Venezuela, in which the U.S. military and law enforcement struck Caracas and captured Maduro alongside his wife, Cilia Flores.
Other senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro's son, are also listed to face charges.
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X that Maduro and his wife “will soon face the wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
The indictment accuses Venezuela’s leaders of having “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.” Maduro is accused of partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow the movement of several thousand tons of cocaine to enter the U.S.
Furthermore, the document details Maduro’s alleged actions taken within the conspiracy.
The indictment additionally mentions that throughout 2006 and 2008, when Maduro served as foreign minister, he allegedly sold Venezuelan diplomatic passports to known narcotics smugglers “in order to assist traffickers seeking to move drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela under diplomatic cover.”
Furthermore, Maduro and Flores are accused of ordering kidnappings, beatings, and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” The orders include the murder of a local drug lord in Caracas.
Within the past year, the Trump administration has increased pressure on Maduro, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio designating the “Cartel de los Soles” as a foreign terrorist organization, as well as boosting military presence along the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Maduro will be formally arraigned on Monday in New York City.
