{"id":232513,"date":"2026-01-07T15:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232513\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T15:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:34:07","slug":"dirty-and-infested-with-drugs-behind-the-new-york-jail-holding-maduro-and-combs-us-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232513\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dirty\u2019 and \u2018infested with drugs\u2019: behind the New York jail holding Maduro and Combs | US crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

After US military forces seized<\/a> Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas during a controversial pre-dawn raid, they were ultimately spirited to one of this country\u2019s most infamous jails: Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn, New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The deposed Venezuelan president and Flores will almost certainly reside in Metropolitan detention center (MDC) until their federal trial on drugs and weapons charge \u2013 inducting them into a notorious group that counts Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/a>, Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a>, and Mexican drug kingpin \u201cEl Chapo<\/a>\u201d as either current or previous members.<\/p>\n

The facility, located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, holds prisoners with pending cases in the United States district court for the eastern district of New York<\/a> as well as those serving brief sentences.<\/p>\n

The notable names mentioned above are among the many high-profile defendants who have called this correctional facility home in recent years. Luigi Mangione<\/a>, who faces federal and state charges in the killing<\/a> of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is presently jailed there.<\/p>\n

Other widely known inmates have included Trap Queen singer Fetty Wap, Rev Al Sharpton (who served a 90-day sentence in 2001), disgraced R&B star R Kelly<\/a>, \u201cPharma Bro\u201d Martin Shkreli, and Nxivm sex cult leader Keith Raniere and member Allison Mack<\/a>. Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, the former president of Honduras found guilty of trafficking cocaine, was also held there. Donald Trump pardoned<\/a> him in December.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyers representing both famous and lower-profile detainees alike have repeatedly complained that conditions at MDC are unsafe and inhumane.<\/p>\n

Following Combs\u2019s arrest on sex-trafficking charges in September 2024, for example, the fallen hip-hop mogul\u2019s lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos cited violence at MDC in making their pitch for bail. The attorneys said<\/a> in a letter that an inmate was killed<\/a> at MDC in summer 2024 and noted that a minimum of four detainees died by suicide there in the past three years. They also alluded to examples from other cases detailing \u201cfood contamination and hazardous physical conditions\u201d, invoking other times where MDC was described as \u201cdirty\u201d, \u201cinfested with drugs\u201d and replete with violence.<\/p>\n

Federal judges have even refused to send defendants there whom they determine don\u2019t pose a danger to others.<\/p>\n

Manhattan federal court judge Jesse Furman said<\/a> in a January 2024 decision that he would not send a man \u2013 whom he noted had been compliant with his bail terms \u2013 to MDC before his sentencing for fentanyl distribution, due to the conditions.<\/p>\n

Maxwell, who in 2021 was found guilty of aiding her former partner Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sexual abuse of teen girls, pushed for bail during her MDC tenure, arguing that the conditions were inhumane. She said jail guards flashed lights into her cell every 15 minutes to make sure she was alive. (Epstein died by suicide in the now-shuttered Manhattan federal jail<\/a> in 2019.)<\/p>\n

A power outage<\/a> at MDC in the winter of 2019 left inmates without heat for an entire week while a polar vortex hammered New York with below-freezing temperatures. Defendants have often contended to \u201cnear perpetual lockdowns\u201d that could \u201cno longer [be] explained by Covid-19\u201d restrictions, Furman said in his decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has gotten to the point that it is routine for judges in both this district and the eastern district to give reduced sentences to defendants based on the conditions of confinement in the MDC,\u201d Furman wrote. \u201cProsecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

MDC, which houses 1,336 inmates according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has reeled from overcrowding and staff shortages. After Manhattan\u2019s Metropolitan correctional center closed in 2021, MDC was among the facilities that absorbed<\/a> its detainee population.<\/p>\n

Manhattan federal court judge Colleen McMahon even said in 2021 that both Metropolitan correctional center and Metropolitan detention center were \u201crun by morons\u201d, according to the New York Post<\/a>. At the facilities, officials neglected to \u201cdo anything meaningful\u201d to address conditions. Wardens at these jails, McMahon said<\/a>, \u201ccycle repeatedly, never staying for longer than a few months or even a year\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has claimed that conditions at MDC have improved. \u201cSince January 2024, there has been a substantial decrease in violence, limits on the inmates\u2019 scheduled times out of their cells, and attempted introductions of contraband at MDC Brooklyn,\u201d BOP officials said<\/a> in a recent fact sheet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, MDC Brooklyn is safe for the inmates and staff,\u201d they also claimed. MDC\u2019s staffing has improved with 87% of positions filled and a decline in the number of inmates since January 2024, officials said.<\/p>\n

Maduro and Flores appeared<\/a> in Manhattan federal court on Monday following their transfer to MDC and both pleaded not guilty<\/a>. He carried himself with a bloviating defiance similar to that of his foe, Trump, even calling himself a \u201cprisoner of war\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Maduro and Flores\u2019s courtroom presence put into sharp relief that they were no longer leaders enjoying the power that came with helming even troubled nations \u2013 they were now bedraggled detainees awaiting trial.<\/p>\n

Maduro was dressed in drab jail garb \u2013 khaki pants with a blue and orange shirt \u2013 with Flores wearing a similar color scheme. Flores had bandages on her face, which her lawyer said were injuries sustained during the couple\u2019s capture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After US military forces seized Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas during a controversial pre-dawn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-232513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}