Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 17, 2024.
Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, face a raft of charges in the United States following President Trump’s announcement early Saturday that the U.S. attacked Caracas and took them into custody.
Maduro, Flores and senior Venezuelan officials face charges related to alleged “drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies,” according to an unsealed indictment posted on social media Saturday by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The indictment alleges that, starting in 1999, the defendants partnered with international drug trafficking organizations to ultimately transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote in an earlier post on X.
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…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 3, 2026
The new indictment adds to charges from the first Trump administration, when the U.S. Justice Department announced a federal indictment against Maduro in March 2020.
That indictment alleged that Maduro was the leader of the Cartel de los Soles, and that he and other defendants took part in a narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Colombian guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Prosecutors said that the Cartel de los Soles was made up of high-ranking Venezuelan officials who abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the nation’s institutions to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
According to the 2020 indictment, Maduro helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel de los Soles, which sought to get rich and flood the U.S. with cocaine, allegedly using the drug as a weapon against the United States.
Prosecutors said that Maduro helped negotiate multi-ton shipments of cocaine, and directed the Cartel de los Soles to provide military-grade weapons to FARC.
He also allegedly coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and others to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking.
The current Trump administration has ramped up the pressure over the past year. In November 2025, the U.S. designated the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.
The new indictment released Saturday reiterates these charges and also alleges that Maduro “partnered” with organizations including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas and Tren de Aragua.
Separately, the International Criminal Court has been investigating the Venezuelan government for alleged torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detentions.
This is a developing story, which may be updated.
