New York: Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is being held at one of the most notorious federal jails in the United States — Metropolitan Detention Centre Brooklyn — a facility long criticised for violence, squalid conditions and repeated failures in inmate safety, according to court records, judges and former detainees.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, were brought to the Brooklyn jail late Saturday after being captured in a dramatic overnight operation, transported aboard a US Navy ship and flown to the United States to face federal drug-trafficking charges.
A jail with a troubled reputation
Founded in 1994, MDC Brooklyn is the only federal jail in New York City for detainees awaiting trial. It currently houses about 1,300 men and women and has long faced criticism over overcrowding, violence, staffing shortages and unsanitary conditions.
Past and current inmates include singer R. Kelly, financier Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, whose lawyers previously described the jail as “inhumane.” Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was also detained there before his conviction on drug charges.
In 2019, detainees were left without heat or power for days during winter after an electrical fire. In 2024, two inmates were murdered in separate stabbings, prompting a Justice Department crackdown on violence and contraband smuggling.
Maxwell complained of raw sewage, mould and vermin during her detention, while Combs alleged guards served expired, maggot-infested food and said he narrowly avoided an attack with a makeshift weapon, according to court filings.
Conditions under scrutiny
Federal judges have repeatedly raised concerns about MDC Brooklyn. In January 2024, US District Judge Jesse Furman described conditions at the jail as an “ongoing tragedy” and declined to send some defendants there.