Nicolas Maduro shuffles into police SUV in prison garb as Venezuelan president is helicoptered from hellhole NYC jail for first court appearance on drugs and gun charges
Nicolas Maduro was loaded into a police SUV in prison fatigues on his way to his first court appearance from a New York prison this morning.
The 63-year-old Venezuelan president is expected to appear in court on Monday on drug and weapons charges, just days after he was captured in Caracas in a shocking US military operation.
Maduro was taken from the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center to a nearby helipad. It then flew a short distance across the East River to the southern tip of Manhattan.
There, surrounded by armed police officers, he was seen clumsily climbing out of the helicopter in shackles before being loaded into a khaki armored vehicle.
The captured Venezuelan president was then taken to Manhattan Federal Court, where he will be arraigned at 12pm ET.
There was no trace of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was forcibly removed from Caracas on Saturday and faces drug trafficking charges.
Maduro’s lawyers are expected to challenge the legality of his arrest, arguing that as a sovereign head of state he is immune from investigation.
President Donald Trump accused Maduro of leading the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Sun), which he claimed was flooding the United States with cocaine.
On his way to his first court appearance from a New York prison this morning, Nicolas Maduro was bundled into a police SUV wearing prison garb.
Nicolas Maduro is moved from a Brooklyn jail ahead of his first hearing at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport for the first time as Daniel Patrick heads to the Manhattan U.S. Courthouse
Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded the extradition to the US of Maduro, who has long denied any involvement in drug trafficking – but struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post late Sunday, calling for cooperation with Trump and “respectful relations” with the US.
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed that US hostility was motivated by desire for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
The USA captured Maduro and his wife at their home on a military base in a military operation on Saturday.
Trump said the US would temporarily ‘run’ Venezuela, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday the US would not run the country on a day-to-day basis other than enforcing the current ‘oil quarantine’.
Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to further expand America’s power in the western hemisphere.
Speaking on Air Force One, he described Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States.” And he won’t be able to do that for very long.’
He called on Venezuelan Rodriguez to provide ‘full access’ to his country or face consequences.
President Nicolas Maduro is disembarked from a helicopter at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport
DEA agents await the arrival of captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport before Maduro’s first appearance at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse in Manhattan on January 5.
The 25-page indictment, made public on Saturday, accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment.
As of Sunday, it was not immediately clear whether Maduro had retained a US lawyer.
He and Flores have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to receive money from them without a license from the Treasury Department.
Although the indictment against Maduro said Venezuelan officials were working directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment released in April and based on input from 18 agencies of the intelligence community found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
Maduro, his wife and freed son are indicted along with Venezuelan interior and justice minister Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, a former interior and justice minister and alleged Tren de Aragua leader who was indicted in a separate case and remains at large.
The indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of, among other things, ordering the kidnapping, beating and killing of people who owed them drugs or undermined their drug trafficking operations. This included the murder of a local drug lord in Caracas, the indictment said.
According to the indictment, Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to arrange a meeting between a ‘large-scale drug trafficker’ and the director of Venezuela’s National Drug Enforcement Agency in 2007; This results in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
