The Federal Court of the Southern District of the state of New York made public this Saturday (3) a new criminal accusation against the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, captured in the early hours of the morning during an operation by American forces in Caracas.
According to the court document, Maduro is again identified as leader of a drug trafficking and narcoterrorism network that, over more than two decades, used Venezuelan state structures to facilitate the shipment of large quantities of cocaine to the United States.
According to the indictment, filed by federal prosecutors in New York, the scheme described involves coordination with transnational criminal organizations, institutional protection and the use of air and sea routes to transport the drug. The prosecutors maintain that the action would aim to finance and strengthen the regime’s political power, in addition to achieving North American national security.
According to the records, the new piece reorganizes and details facts previously mentioned in the case opened in 2020, adding only new evidentiary elements and criminal frameworks linked to narcoterrorism. The accusation reinforces the thesis that high-ranking Venezuelan authorities had used state control to guarantee the continued operation of the scheme.
According to the court, the public disclosure of the complaint occurs after a court decision that authorized the removal of procedural secrecy. The case remains under the jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York, responsible for actions involving international crimes, drug trafficking and terrorism.
