{"id":175877,"date":"2026-03-26T12:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175877\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T12:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:27:10","slug":"venezuelan-dictator-nicolas-maduro-heads-to-nyc-court-for-first-time-since-stunning-arrest-on-drug-trafficking-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/175877\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro heads to NYC court for first time since stunning arrest on drug-trafficking charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deposed Venezuelan tyrant Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> is set to appear in Manhattan court Thursday for the first time since his stunning arrest \u2013 as he desperately tries to get his drug-trafficking indictment thrown out.<\/p>\n

Maduro, 63, is claiming the US government is affecting his ability to defend himself against the narco-terror charges leveled against him \u2013 as sanctions are stopping the Venezuelan<\/a> government from covering his legal costs.<\/p>\n

\"Venezuela'sDeposed Venezuelan tyrant Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is set to appear in Manhattan court Thursday for the first time since his stunning arrest \u2013 as he desperately tries to get his drug-trafficking indictment thrown out. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Barry Pollack, Maduro\u2019s defense lawyer who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, claimed the US Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control agency revoked a license that would allow Venezuela to cover the costs after approving it.<\/p>\n

\"FormerMaduro and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, have been holed up in a Brooklyn detention center since their January arraignment. Flores will also appear in court Thursday. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Maduro can use his own accounts to cover legal costs, but he claimed he cannot afford to do so.<\/p>\n

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores<\/a>, 69, have been holed up in a Brooklyn detention center<\/a> since their January arraignment. Flores will also appear in court<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Maduro declared: \u201cI am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maduro and Flores were indicted on narco-terrorism charges after being snatched from their Caracas mansion by US forces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The former strongman is accused of running a \u201ccorrupt, illegitimate government,\u201d which \u201cleveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

A trial date has not yet been set.<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deposed Venezuelan tyrant Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is set to appear in Manhattan court Thursday for the first time since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3283,419,7317,57,9,24,15862,56,63,65,64,42364,58,7318],"class_list":["post-175877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-arrests","tag-courts","tag-drugs","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro","tag-us-news","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}