The Boeing 757 military plane that transported dictator Nicolás Maduro landed this Saturday (3) at a New York airport under tight security, hours after the now former Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured during the early hours of the morning by American forces in the heart of Caracas, Venezuela. According to United States authorities, Maduro is expected to appear in federal court in the coming days to answer charges of narcoterrorism and other crimes.
According to official information, the aircraft with Maduro landed at Stewart International Airport, in the state of New York. There were dozens of federal agents from different American agencies, including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US drug enforcement agency. Agents entered the plane shortly after landing to take custody of the detainee.
Maduro was seen leaving the aircraft in handcuffs, dressed in gray clothes (similar to those in the photo that was shared by Donald Trump on social media) and escorted by more than a dozen federal agents. The images were recorded by a local affiliate of the American broadcaster CNN. Cilia Flores was not identified in the images.
The expectation now is that Maduro will initially be transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a US federal prison located in the district of Brooklyn, where he must remain detained pending his first court hearings.
Maduro was formally charged in 2020 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. This Saturday, according to the United States Department of Justice, a substitute indictment was made public in the same court, which reiterates allegations of conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and crimes related to the use and possession of automatic weapons.
