New York – Toppled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro appeared in federal court on Monday to face US drug trafficking charges after President Donald Trump’s stunning capture of him rattled world leaders and left officials in Caracas scrambling to respond. Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges before US district judge Alvin Hellerstein. The ousted leader — his hands zip-tied — and his wife Cilia Flores were transported under guard on Monday morning from a Brooklyn detention centre to a helicopter bound for the Manhattan court.
The arraignment got under way as UN chief Antonio Guterres raised concerns about instability in Venezuela and the legality of Trump’s strike, the most dramatic US intervention in Latin America since the 1989 Panama invasion. Special forces swooped into Caracas by helicopter on Saturday, shattered his security cordon and dragged him from the threshold of a safe room. Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network that partnered with violent groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombian FARC rebels and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
Maduro, 63, has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs onVenezuela’s oil. Outside the courthouse, dozens of Maduro supporters outnumbered a handful of anti-Maduro Venezuelan immigrants. Maduro faces decades to life in prison on each count if convicted.
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He will be represented by Washington defence lawyer Barry Pollack, according to a court document. Pollack’s past clients include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who pleaded guilty to US charges in 2024 in a deal that allowed him to return to his native Australia. Prosecutors say Maduro has been involved in drug trafficking from the time he began serving in Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2000 to his tenure as foreign minister and subsequent 2013 election as the late president Hugo Chavez’s successor.
Federal prosecutors in New York first indicted him in 2020 as part of a long-running narcotics trafficking case against current and former Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrillas. An updated indictment made public on Saturday added some new details and co-defendants, including Cilia Flores. The US has considered Maduro an illegitimate dictator since he declared victory in a 2018 election marred by allegations of massive irregularities. Experts in international law have questioned the legality of the raid, with some condemning Trump’s actions as a repudiation of a rules-based international order.
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