Prosecution of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
Prosecution of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
United States v. Nicolás Maduro Moros et al., originally filed under United States v. Carvajal-Barrios, is a federal criminal case filed against Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and various senior Venezuelan officials by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2011 and unsealed on March 26, 2020. The indictment alleged that Maduro and his associates conspired with Colombian guerrilla groups to traffic cocaine into the United States as part of what U.S. authorities termed a narcoterrorism conspiracy.
Prosecution of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
The indictment initially included Hugo Carvajal, who was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited to the United States on a warrant for drug trafficking in 2014. Carvajal pleaded guilty in June 2025. Clíver Alcalá Cordones, who was also indicted, surrendered to U.S. agents in Colombia and in 2023 pleaded guilty to providing aid to the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Prosecution of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
On January 3, 2026, a superseding indictment was unsealed after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured during a U.S. military operation in Caracas supported by the DOJ and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Maduro and Flores were transported to the United States and taken into federal custody in New York City, and are currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. They have pleaded not guilty.
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