The United States announced a historic reward of $ 50 million for information leading to the arrest of Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro. The value is the highest in history, exceeding even what was offered by terrorist Osama Bin Laden after the September 11 attack.
Since 2020, during Donald Trump’s first term, the country accuses mature of crimes of drug trafficking and terrorism. But the Venezuelan dictator is not the only “sought” by the United States.
The country has a diversity of programs to sanction and offer rewards for information from traffickers, terrorists and other criminals who are considered dangerous to US national security.
Rewards for Justice (RFJ)
This program, launched in 1984, proposes to obtain accurate information about individuals or organizations involved in terrorism, foreign interference in US elections, malicious cyber activities directed by foreigners against the United States and financial mechanisms of individuals involved in support activities for the North Korean regime.
According to one’s own site From the government, more than $ 250 million have been distributed to more than 125 people who provided useful information that brought terrorists to court, interrupted terrorist attacks or financing, or interrupted financial mechanisms of those involved in illegal activities to support North Korea.
An emblematic case involving the RFJ was the arrest of Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, a bomb attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993 in New York, who killed six people and wounded over a thousand.
According to the US government, after the attack, Yousef managed to leave the country on a plane to Pakistan. RFJ paid a $ 2 million reward for information that led to the terrorist’s capture.
In 2003, the RFJ paid a reward of $ 900,000 to three people who provided information about the location of Edgar Navarro, commander of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) after the kidnapping of an American plane in the Colombian jungle.
The FARC and their local allies murdered two occupants of the aircraft, American citizen Thomas Janis and Colombian sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz. That year, three informants led a team of Colombian soldiers to the Navarro camp in an attempt to capture him and other members of the FARC. Navarro was killed in the shooting with army troops. Three other Americans on the plane were later rescued in 2008 in a Colombian military operation.
There are dozens of cases not yet solved with valid rewards offered by the RFJ.
Global Criminal Justice Rewards Program (GCJRP)
This program is part of the US State Department and offers rewards of up to $ 5 million to individuals who provide information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of foreign citizens accused of crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes.
The Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) operates in coordination with partners of the government, foreign governments, international courts and non -governmental organizations. The GCJRP has paid more than $ 8 million in rewards to informants who have contributed in more than 20 cases around the world.
The US paid rewards for information about many indicted by the International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia (TPIJ).
One case involves Radovan Karadžić, former president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The TPIJ indicated Karadžić for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including those committed during the siege of Sarajevo and in Srebrica.
Karadžić escaped the capture for decades, according to the government’s website. He hid in 1997 and was passing as a doctor who specializes in alternative medicine in Belgrade and Vienna under a false name. He was finally arrested on July 21, 2008 in Belgrade.
Currently, there is a reward opened by four terrorists in Congo: Evariste Lumu (also known as Beau-Gars); Mérovée Mutumbo; Gérard Kabongo; and Jean Kutenelu Badibanga (also known as Kuteneleli).
They are sought after For the roles in the 2017 murders of Michael J. Sharp and Zaida Maria Catalán, members of the UN expert group on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who worked in the eastern part of the DRC for many years.
The train in which they were was ambushed near the village of Moyo-Musuila, where they were “tried and condemned” before militiamen and residents gathered, allegedly because they are mercenaries acting on behalf of the Armed Forces of the RDC (FARDC).
Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP)
The Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) operates alongside police authorities to dismantle illicit trafficking and other transnational criminal networks.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has the legal authority to offer rewards of up to $ 25 million for information that leads to the reduction of transnational crime, the dismantling of financial mechanisms that enable him and the arrest and/or conviction of members and leaders of these organizations.
There are several cases open currently in the tocrp. One is to capture Chinese hacker Zhou Shuai, identified as a threat since the 1990s and associated with a group of advanced persistent threats (APT27).
According to the American program website, Zhou is known for having broad contacts within the Chinese hacker ecosystem and the Xi Jinping regime. Other members of this group are also sought with rewards of up to $ 2 million.
Also, there are Russian individuals involved with computer invasions aiming at US companies and stolen payment card data trafficking. In 2024, the US State Department also announced three rewards totaling up to $ 12 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Aragua’s Tren leaders, a gang started in Venezuela and with transnational performance.
