U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Saturday morning that Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
“Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States,” A.G. Bondi wrote on social media.
President Donald Trump announced through an early morning Truth Social post that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were “captured and flown out of the country.”
The announcement came moments after a series of strikes hit several locations across Venezuela, including Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s main military complex.
U.S. courts indicted Nicolás Maduro and other members of his authoritarian socialist regime in 2020, charging the dictator with multiple narco-terrorism charges.
Maduro stands accused of being a leading figure, if not the leader of, the Cartel de los Soles (“Cartel of the Suns”), an international cocaine trafficking operation led by top members of the Venezuelan regime that for years sought to “flood” the United States with cocaine to harm its people.
The Chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Saturday morning that “Maduro wasn’t just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation. That’s why he was indicted in U.S. court nearly six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.”
Senator Cotton said that he spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who informed him that Maduro is in custody in the United States “and will face justice for his crimes against our citizens.”
“I commend President Trump and our brave troops and law-enforcement officers for this incredible operation. The interim government in Venezuela must now decide whether to continue the drug trafficking and colluding with adversaries like Iran and Cuba or whether to act like a normal nation and return to the civilized world. I urge them to choose wisely,” he said.
President Trump said on his Truth Social post that further details would follow at a press conference to be hosted later today at Mar-a-Lago.
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