While Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were still en route from Venezuela to the United States, the prosecutor of the Southern District of New York released a detailed, 25-page indictment outside. If oil was the real reason for kidnapping the head of state of a foreign nation, then the legal justification for the operation was at least carefully prepared. Four indictments, all presented to and approved by a grand jury, against Maduro, his wife and son and several members of his government – for terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons possession.
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that the couple will experience “the full retribution of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Maduro and his wife are now locked up in the Metropolitan Detention Center, the prison in Brooklyn, New York, where Ghislaine Maxwell, the ex-partner of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was held not so long ago. They could be brought before a judge on Monday, according to American media reports. Then they hear the suspicions that prosecutor Jay Clayton, appointed by Trump in April, has drawn up.
According to US justice, Maduro has been involved in drug trafficking since 1999
The indictment details Venezuela’s alleged role in drug trafficking from South America, and especially neighboring Colombia, to the US and other countries. According to US justice, Maduro has been involved in drug trafficking since 1999, the year he became a member of the national parliament. As a representative, he is said to have “moved loads of cocaine” with the knowledge of the police and the judiciary.
As foreign minister, a position he acquired in 2006, Maduro is said to have issued diplomatic passports to drug smugglers. They are said to have picked up cocaine in Mexico using private planes. Minister Maduro then, according to the New York prosecutor, called the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico to warn that these flights were arriving. This way they could bring their contraband on board unhindered by the Mexican police or army and fly back to Venezuela under the diplomatic flag.
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As president, Maduro and his clique, including his son Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, alias ‘Nicolaasje’ or ‘the prince’, are said to have benefited from the large-scale corruption associated with drug trafficking. The regime of Maduro, who has been president of Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013, is said to have maintained intense contacts with terrorist movements such as the FARC and ELN in Colombia and the Mexican drug cartel Zetas and with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Araguas, all closely involved in the drug trade in the region.
Reward
The substantiation of the various accusations in the indictment is detailed and does not give the impression that this operation was quickly put together. The document builds on an earlier indictment against Maduro from 2020, when the Justice Department under Trump-I also targeted the Venezuelan president. In August last year a $50 million reward rewarded for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
The question is whether that colossal reward has had an effect. It is clear from the specific examples mentioned in the indictment that the Americans had had insight into the alleged drug crimes of Maduro and his family for years. For example, it is described in detail how wife Cilia Flores had a hand in a meeting in 2007 between a notorious drug criminal and the top boss of the Venezuelan anti-narcotics campaign. From then on, he would receive a monthly lump sum, plus a compensation of $ 100,000 per drug flight left undisturbed.
In August last year, a $50 million reward was offered for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
In 2014 and 2015, two of Maduro’s cousins were caught trying to smuggle 800 kilos of cocaine into the US using the ‘presidential hangar’ at Venezuela’s main airport, Maiquetia. Their movements were followed by informants from the DEA, the American drug agents.
According to the indictment, son Maduro Guerra had a meeting in Colombia in 2020 during which he allegedly made agreements with two representatives of the FARC movement about the smuggling of cocaine and weapons from Colombia to the US.
Historical precedent
As unprecedented and daring as Saturday’s operation was, there is historical precedent. In December 1989, the US government launched a similar attack on Panama, which resulted in the capture of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. He was also charged and convicted of drug trafficking. And this operation in Panama also brought together several American interests: the fight against drug smuggling and the de facto temporary takeover of control of the Panama Canal, which is essential for international trade. Moreover, on the first day of his second term, President Trump already hinted at an American takeover of the Panama Canal.
Venezuela is not the main source of cocaine smuggled into the US; The country does not appear in a 2024 UN report on drugs. Nevertheless, the country has been a prominent figure for decades reports from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as one of the “favorite smuggling routes” for merchandise from Colombia and other drug-exporting countries in South America. These reports also explicitly point out the corruption that makes this possible and the government’s weak attitude towards combating drug trafficking.
Honduras
The indictment contains one more salient detail about the international drug trade in what Trump has now officially designated as America’s backyard. Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico are mentioned as transshipment ports for cocaine smuggled via Venezuela. In those countries too, the drug gangs could count on “a culture of corruption,” writes New York prosecutor Clayton. In exchange for lump sums, local politicians offered protection and assistance with the illegal trade. “With that coke money, these politicians retained and increased their power.”
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That passage inevitably brings to mind the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the US in 2024 for drug smuggling. He helped smuggle 400,000 kilos of cocaine into the US. “I push the drugs into the noses of the gringos“, according to the American justice system, he had bluffed against an accomplice. His brother Tony had previously been convicted in the US for drug trafficking.
This backyard drug trafficker was pardoned by President Trump on December 1. JOH, as he was called in Honduras, had been “very unfairly prosecuted” by the Justice Department under his predecessor Joe Biden, according to Trump. “He was the head of state!”
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