U.S. charges head of Venezuela with drug trafficking
WASHINGTON — President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was indicted in the United States on Thursday in a narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking conspiracy in which prosecutors said he led a violent drug cartel even as he amassed power.
The indictment of a putative head of state was highly unusual and served as an escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure Maduro to leave office after his widely disputed reelection in 2018. Maduro has led Venezuela’s economy into shambles and prompted an exodus of millions of people into neighboring countries.
Attorney General William Barr announced the charges Thursday at a news briefing along with the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the top federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Miami.
Maduro condemned the charges, accusing the United States and its ally Colombia on Twitter of giving “the order to fill Venezuela with violence.” He declared that he would not be defeated.
In addition to Maduro, more than a dozen others were charged, including Venezuelan government and intelligence officials and members of the largest rebel group in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as FARC, which has long drawn its financing from the cocaine trade.
The chief justice of Venezuela was also charged with money laundering and the country’s minister of defense with drug trafficking, Barr said. The charges were contained in four separate indictments, two filed in New York and one each in Miami and Washington, Barr said.
The State Department is offering rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to the capture or conviction of Maduro, who remains in Venezuela, said Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
One of the indictments unsealed in federal court in Manhattan included four counts, accusing the defendants of possessing machine guns and conspiring to possess machine guns in addition to the narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking conspiracy charges.
Maduro helped run and ultimately led a drug trafficking organization called Cartel de Los Soles as he gained power in Venezuela, according to court papers.