Newsletters
The Trump administration said Saturday that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife will face U.S. drug and terrorism charges after being taken into U.S. custody, according to Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were removed from Venezuela by the U.S. military and are now in U.S. custody. She said they “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote on X.
Bondi said Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.
Bondi said the charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
Maduro was previously indicted in March 2020 in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism-related charges, according to Bondi. She said the current case also includes his wife, who was not charged in the earlier indictment.
A senior law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News that Maduro was newly indicted and that Bondi was not referring solely to the 2020 case.
U.S. President Donald Trump gave the green light several days ago for Maduro’s capture, and the mission was carried out by the Army’s Delta Force, according to a person familiar with the matter speaking to CNN.
"The CIA tracked Maduro’s location after Trump authorized covert activity inside Venezuela months earlier," the person said. Maduro was arrested to stand trial in the United States, although his precise location was unclear Saturday.
"The president offered multiple off-ramps but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says. Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation," U.S. Vice President JD Vance posted on X, resharing Trump's Truth Social from earlier this morning.
1 min read
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were dragged from their bedroom by U.S. forces during the raid that led to their capture, two sources familiar with the matter speaking to CNN said.
"The couple was captured in the middle of the night as they were sleeping," the sources said.
"The raid, carried out by the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force, did not lead to any U.S. casualties," a U.S. official said.
A C.I.A. source within the Venezuelan government monitored the location of Nicolas Maduro in both the days and moments before his capture by American special operation forces, according to people briefed on the operation speaking to The New York Times.
The American spy agency, the people said, produced the intelligence that led to the capture of Maduro, monitoring his position and movements with a fleet of stealth drones that provided near-constant monitoring over Venezuela, in addition to the information provided by its Venezuelan sources.
A team of FBI agents was with the U.S. special operation forces who carried out the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to people briefed on the matter speaking to CNN, and plans are now in the works to take Maduro to New York, where he will face charges in Manhattan federal court.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has worked for years on an indictment of Maduro and some top military leaders in Venezuela, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
That work is expected to form the basis of charges set to be made public.
Set as preferred source
1 min read
