The Justice Department first indicted Maduro in 2020 during Trump’s first term, alleging the Venezuelan president and other top government officials of leading a drug-trafficking organization, the Cártel de Los Soles, and used their positions to negotiate the transportation of cocaine into the United States.
Following his capture, the federal government unveiled a superseding indictment that similarly accuses Maduro of working with narco-terrorist organizations, writing that the leader “sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” The new indictment now levies charges against Maduro’s wife, alleging that she worked alongside her husband to traffic drugs and, in one incident, “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, Nestor Reverol Torres.” The indictment also names Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, Maduro’s son, as a defendant.