US alleges the Venezuelan president has spent past two decades working with international drug trafficking groups
The criminal indictment against the deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, unveiled by US attorney general Pam Bondi Saturday morning adds charges to a narcotics-trafficking complaint brought against the Venezuelan leader in 2020.
The superseding indictment alleges that Maduro and other top Venezuelan public officials have, for the past two decades, worked closely with international drug trafficking organizations to ship illicit drugs into the US while enriching themselves.
The validity of the US complaint against Maduro and wife Cilia Flores is likely to be challenged in federal court in the New York on Monday over whether, as a foreign head of state, he can be put on trial in the US.
However, the US government does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader – although Donald Trump has pledged to work with Maduro’s vice-president Delcy Rodríguez – and the indictment alleges that “since his early days in Venezuelan government, MADURO MOROS has tarnished every public office he has held” and has “moved loads of cocaine under the protection of Venezuelan law enforcement”.
