Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is now on U.S. soil after the Trump administration captured and removed him from power.
Late on Saturday, Maduro reportedly arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., after being flown into the city by helicopter, senior law enforcement officials told Jackie Koppell and Andrew Fischer Espitallier of NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network.
Maduro was set to be processed at the federal prison. He was also expected to be detained at the detention center while awaiting trial, according to The Associated Press.
FBI sources told NewsNation that Maduro was at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba before being flown to New York.
Maduro was later recorded being escorted by federal agents in perhaps the clearest footage yet showing him in the U.S.
Fox News contributor Paul Mauro posted a video — which was shared by an official White House account — on the social platform X where Maduro is seen flanked and held by two men wearing Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) jackets. In the video, Maduro, wearing a hat and holding a water bottle, is heard saying “Happy New Year.”
Maduro and the officials appeared to be at a DEA New York Division office.
Earlier in the day, the AP reported that a person in custody was escorted out of the plane believed to be carrying Maduro after the aircraft landed in New York. The person gingerly made his way down a stairway one step at a time, and then was led across the tarmac surrounded by a crowd of at least three dozen federal agents.
Maduro’s presence in New York City has roiled newly inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), who told reporters on Saturday that he called President Trump to share his objection to the administration’s operation in Venezuela.
Prior to revealing his call to Trump, Mamdani said in a post on X that he was briefed on the situation and the “planned imprisonment” Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in New York City.
“Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,” he added.
Maduro and Flores are facing cocaine importation conspiracy charges and other counts, according to an indictment newly unsealed Saturday following their capture. The four-count superseding indictment, which also charges other Venezuelan government officials and allies, alleges Maduro leveraged government power to protect and promote vast criminal conduct — from drug trafficking to terrorism — for the benefit of himself and his allies.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on the same four counts, but the indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York makes new allegations against the Venezuelan president and adds his wife as a defendant.
