DEPOSED Nicolás Maduro could be locked up in a notorious New York Jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell were once held.
The toppled Venezuelan leader, who was plucked from power in a surprise overnight US military operation, has been slapped with multiple charges and now awaits trial.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro and his wife Flores, had both been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
In the indictment made public on Saturday, Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
They will soon face the “full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts“, the AG added.
Since the charges stem from New York, it allows authorities to keep Naduro inside the Metropolitan Detention Centre.
The notorious, highly secured facility in Brooklyn once held artel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán before his life sentence.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, R. Kelly and Sam Bankman-Fried are among the high profile figires who were also temporarily held at the facility.
But it remains unclear if the US authorities will choose to keep Maduro – the president of another country – in the heart of New York.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were first indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.
A $15 million reward for his arrest was initially offered, with the bounty increased to $25 million and then $50 million last August by Trump.
Washington calls Maduro’s regime a corrupt, illegitimate government fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the US with cocaine.
The US government does not recognise Maduro as the country’s leader.
Authorities estimate that as much as 250 tons of cocaine were trafficked through Venezuela by 2020, according to the indictment.
The drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or by plane from clandestine airstrips, authorities allege.
Trump has repeatedly accused his arch-foe Maduro – in power in Venezuela since April 2013 – of conspiring to flood the US with deadly illegal drugs.
Trump has also alleged he is the leader of a drug ring – Cartel de los Soles – and has designated the group a terrorist organisation.
Last night, he also accused deposed Maduro of sending prison gangs and people from “mental institutions” into the US during a campaign of violence.
A blindfolded Maduro was pictured on board a US warship after he was captured by American special forces.
Donald Trump shared the image just minutes before he announced the US would now run Caracas following the exfiltration of the Venezuelan president and his wife during the special military operation.
The pair were reportedly dragged from their bedroom from inside a fortified military compound while Black Hawk helicopters pounded Caracas.
The removal of Maduro, who led Venezuela with a heavy hand for more than 12 years, potentially opens a power vacuum in the Latin American country.
By lawVice President Delcy Rodríguez should take power, but there was no confirmation that this had happened.
On working with her, Trump said: “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again, very simple.”
However, Rodríguez said that Venezuela will “never be a colony of any nation” before adding that Maduro is Venezuela’s only president.
Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said that the “hour of freedom has arrivred”.
But Trump scotched any expectation that Machado should emerge as Venezuela’s new leader.
She doesn’t have “support or respect” there, he said.
From bus driver to captured president – who is Nicolas Maduro?
MADURO has been Venezuela’s president since 2013 when he took over from Hugo Chavez – widely considered to be his mentor.
Born in Caracas, the hard-left leader was a bus driver before he started his political career in Venezuela.
He became a trade union leader and then later served as Chavez’s foreign minister and vice president.
Maduro was narrowly elected president after Chavez died of cancer.
Unlike Chavez, a hugely popular leader during his reign, Maduro is far from a man of the people.
He is widely considered an authoritarian leader and is seen by many in the West as a tyrant.
He was in charge when Venezuela’s economy collapsed in the 2010s, has brutally cracked down on any protesters and is accused of election rigging.
The US claims both the 2018 and 2024 national elections should be voided due to the interference claims.
In recent years, tensions have ramped up between Maduro and America for several reasons, with drugs and migration being the main two.
In 2018, militants attempted to assassinate Maduro by sending explosives-laden drones over the top of a rally he was addressing on a Caracas avenue.