Maduro narco case echoes US playbook of targeting alleged foreign drug kingpins

In a stunning military operation in the early morning hours on Saturday, the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to face federal charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the drug trade and maintaining a dictatorship at home.

President Donald Trump has for months called on Maduro to resign from his post as leader of the country, which is widely seen as illegitimate, while accusing him of supporting drug cartels designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.

According to U.S. officials, the Justice Department requested military assistance to arrest Maduro (and later his wife, son, two political figures and an alleged international gang leader) after he was indicted on federal terrorism, drug and weapons charges in 2020.

While questions swirl about the legality of the Trump administration’s actions, the United States has previously launched similar operations targeting foreign dictators and suspected drug lords.

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Here’s a look at other examples where US authorities have targeted some of the world’s most notorious leaders, accused of direct involvement in some of the world’s most prolific drug operations.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addresses his supporters at a rally commemorating the anniversary of the 19th century Battle of Santa Ines in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 10, 2025. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Conviction of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega

In 1990, 36 years have passed since Maduro was captured. USA arrested Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is in similar circumstances.

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Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega at a ceremony commemorating the death of national hero Omar Torrijo in Panama City. (Bill Gentile/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Noriega first came to power in 1983 and was long seen as an informant for the United States to provide information on drug trafficking in the region. Noriega, who had worked as a paid CIA collaborator since the 1970s, allowed the United States to establish listening posts in Panama while also allowing pro-American aid to flow through Panama to El Salvador and Nicaragua.

But Noriega established “the hemisphere’s first narcokleptocracy” under the watchful eye of U.S. officials, according to the Senate subcommittee report, which called Noriega “the best example in recent U.S. foreign policy of how a foreign leader can manipulate the United States to the detriment of our own interests.” accordingly Reuters.

He reportedly worked with notorious drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar to funnel cocaine into the United States, while also facilitating the movement of millions of dollars of drug money through Panamanian banks, leading to large kickbacks.

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Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is seen in this Jan. 4, 1990 file photo. (REUTERS/HO AKP)

A year before his arrest, a federal grand jury issued a 12-count indictment against Noriega, effectively clearing the way for President George H.W. Bush to send thousands of US troops to Panama in an operation titled “Just Cause.” Noriega faced federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

As US troops advanced towards the nation’s capital and military headquarters, Noriega, according to popular rumor, took refuge in the Vatican embassy disguised as a woman.

Noriega was eventually forced to surrender on January 3, 1990, and was later sentenced to 40 years in a Florida prison. After 17 years behind bars, he was extradited first to France and then to Panama, where he died in 2017.

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Arrest of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

In 2022, three months after leaving office, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa at the request of U.S. authorities, on charges that he worked with drug traffickers to transport more than 400 tons of cocaine to the United States. accordingly Associated Press.

Following his arrest, Hernández was extradited to the United States to stand trial for his alleged crimes.

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Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks at the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday, November 1, 2021. (Andy Buchanan/AP)

US officials alleged that the disgraced leader had collaborated with drug cartels since 2004 and accepted millions of dollars in bribes as his political career rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress to Honduras’ highest office.

During his trial in Manhattan federal court, Hernández testified that he did not accept bribes while in office, even though drug money was paid to nearly every political party in Honduras. He maintained that he was the victim of vengeful drug traffickers seeking revenge after he helped extradite them to the United States, and that he also worked with three presidential administrations to limit drug imports into the country.

Hernández was later convicted by a jury in March 2024, and a federal judge sentenced him to 45 years in a U.S. prison and an $8 million fine.

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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez (second from right) is handcuffed and taken to a waiting plane as he is extradited to the United States at the Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022. (Elmer Martinez/AP)

However, Hernández was pardoned by Trump in late 2025 after serving only 17 months of his sentence.

“The people of Honduras really thought they were being set up, and that was a terrible thing,” Trump said. “They said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a fiction of the Biden administration. So I looked at the facts and agreed with them.”

After Trump announced Hernández’s pardon, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said in a social media post that his office was considering bringing charges against the former president, but did not specify which crimes authorities were investigating.

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Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s trial and guilty verdict

In 2017, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the infamous leader of Mexico’s “Sinaloa Cartel,” was extradited to the United States to be tried in various district courts across the country for drug trafficking and related crimes.

The notorious crime boss evaded capture several times and escaped from a Mexican prison twice. Federal prosecutors found that Guzman used a variety of cunning tactics to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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When Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was extradited from Mexico to the United States (AP)

Former cartel member Miguel Angel Martinez testified in federal court that the gang used trucks to transport 3,000 boxes full of cocaine across the U.S.-Mexico border, estimating that the vehicles carry 25 to 30 tons of cocaine into the country each year, worth $400 million to $500 million. accordingly Associated Press.

After the profits arrived in Tijuana, Guzman would send out three of his private jets on a monthly basis to collect the money; each plane was carrying home about $10 million.

Following his landmark federal trial in Brooklyn, Guzman was sentenced to life in prison with another sentence after an earlier guilty verdict on drug trafficking charges resulted in a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. The judge also ordered Guzman to pay $12.6 billion in illicit income from his empire built on drug trafficking and murder.

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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation in Mexico City on January 8, 2016. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo/File Photo)

A defiant Guzman used his final moments in public attention to blast the judge for not granting him a new trial following unfounded allegations of juror misconduct.

“My case was tainted, and you deprived me of a fair trial while the whole world watched,” Guzman said through an interpreter.

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Guzman will spend his days behind bars at the federal government’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where detainees are held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day.

“I take this opportunity to say that there is no justice here, as the government will send me to a prison where my name will never be heard again,” Guzman said during his sentencing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.