<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A newly unsealed US Justice Department indictment accuses captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of running a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fuelled by an extensive drug-trafficking operation that flooded the US with thousands of tons of cocaine.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a stunning military operation on Saturday in </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/venezuela" rel="" target="" title="Venezuela "><span>Venezuela</span></a><span> sets the stage for a major test for US prosecutors as they seek to secure a conviction in a New York courtroom against the longtime leader of the oil-rich South American nation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and Flores “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts".</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/venezuela-international-leaders-react-to-donald-trump-capturing-president-nicolas-maduro-and-wife-cilia-flores/ca6ec3ae-3315-45a8-b736-228e674ec155"><strong><span>'Extremely dangerous': Five countries unite to condemn US attack on Venezuela</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Here's a look at the accusations against Maduro and the charges he faces:</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Drug and weapons charges</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro has been charged alongside his wife, his son and three others.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/venezuela-how-cocaine-and-corruption-led-to-the-indictment-of-maduro/2fa8a5f0-348a-4033-b2b6-eba314ae93c1" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro is indicted on four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/venezuela-is-billions-in-distressed-debt-who-will-collect-explainer/f015746c-03f6-47df-aa8c-410d99f6e35b"><strong><span>Venezuela's billions in distressed debt: Who is in line to collect?</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro is facing the same charges as an earlier indictment brought against him in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="Trump "><span>Trump</span></a><span> presidency.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The new indictment unsealed on Saturday, which adds charges against Flores, was filed under seal in the Southern District of New York just before Christmas.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro is due to make his first appearance on Monday (Tuesday AEST) in federal court in Manhattan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A video posted on Saturday night on social media by a White House account showed Maduro, smiling, as he was escorted through a US Drug Enforcement Administration office in </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="" title="New York "><span>New York</span></a><span> by two federal agents grasping his arms.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-threats-greenland-danish-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-urges-halt/48395950-9d0e-4e4c-984f-6608705911f4"><strong><span>'No sense': Danish PM's blunt response as Trump again floats takeover</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He was expected to be detained at a federal jail in Brooklyn while awaiting trial.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>‘Cocaine-fuelled corruption’ flourished</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The indictment accuses Maduro of partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/drugs" rel="" target="" title="drug "><span>drug</span></a><span> traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world” to allow for the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Authorities allege powerful and violent drug-trafficking organisations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, worked directly with the Venezuelan government and then sent profits to high-ranking officials who helped and protected them in exchange.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-captures-maduro-ouster-of-venezuelan-president-sparks-celebrations/c35cbaf6-5d85-4cf5-aa81-c328f7d83f6b"><strong><span>Tears of joy as millions celebrate Maduro's downfall</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But a US intelligence assessment published in April, which drew on input from the 18 agencies that comprise the intelligence community, found no co-ordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro allowed “cocaine-fuelled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members,” the indictment alleges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>US authorities allege that Maduro and his family “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support” to cartels moving drugs throughout the region, resulting in as much as 250 tons of cocaine trafficked through Venezuela annually by 2020, according to the indictment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Drugs were moved on go-fast vessels, fishing boats and container ships or on planes from clandestine airstrips, the indictment says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/venezuela-who-is-president-nicolas-maduro-wife-cilia-flores-explainer/510bb4fb-26db-491c-b8c6-bc3d454ab4a7"><strong><span>Who is Cilia Flores, Maduro's wife and 'first combatant'?</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Successive US administrations have warned about Venezuela’s role as a transit point for cocaine and a haven for criminal gangs, terrorist groups and drug-smuggling leftist rebels from neighbouring Colombia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While reliable data is hard to ascertain, the vast majority of cocaine departs South America from Colombia and Ecuador, making its way north through the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/venezuela-executive-vice-president-demands-nicolas-maduro-release-refuses-to-become-us-colony/19bee6d6-a90e-480f-93d7-530ad1173b42" rel="" target="" title="Venezuela's VP condemns 'kidnapping' and says country will never be a US colony"><strong><span>Venezuela's VP condemns 'kidnapping' and says country will never be a US colony</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Allegations of kidnappings and murders ordered</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That includes the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a corrupt deal, the drug trafficker then agreed to pay a monthly bribe to the director of the anti-drug office as well as about $US100,000 ($149,000) for each cocaine-carrying flight “to ensure the flight’s safe passage".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some of that money then went to Maduro’s wife, the indictment says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Nephews of Maduro's wife were heard during recorded meetings with confidential US government sources in 2015 agreeing to send “multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments” from Maduro's “presidential hangar” at a Venezuelan airport.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The nephews during the recorded meetings explained “that they were at ‘war’ with the United States,” the indictment alleges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They were both sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to send tons of cocaine into the US before being released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for seven imprisoned Americans.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2025/01/04/12/45/today-in-history-january-5-what-happened-on-this-day-in-pictures"><img alt="January 5, 1975" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/FWL4kubSSvfN_gT0UNmAdINmuPg=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FImages%2F2015%2FJanuary%2F05%2F0501_tasmanbridge_a.jpg" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/FWL4kubSSvfN_gT0UNmAdINmuPg=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FImages%2F2015%2FJanuary%2F05%2F0501_tasmanbridge_a.jpg 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/XibYFmiJvukmev87ZZoTuIEa15Y=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2FImages%2F2015%2FJanuary%2F05%2F0501_tasmanbridge_a.jpg 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">Half-century since horror tragedy killed a dozen Australians</div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2025/01/04/12/45/today-in-history-january-5-what-happened-on-this-day-in-pictures">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Rubio calls operation a ‘law enforcement function'</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During a news conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cast the military raid that captured Maduro and his wife as an action carried out on behalf of the Department of Justice.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Caine said the operation was made “at the request of the Justice Department".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Rubio, as he responded to a question about whether Congress had been notified, said the US raid to get the couple was “basically a law enforcement function," adding that it was an instance in which the “Department of War supported the Department of Justice".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He called Maduro “a fugitive of American justice with a $US50 million reward” over his head.</span></div></div>