‘Happy New Year!’ Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's first words after capture by US: Watch video
President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were earlier captured from Caracas after US President Donald Trump unilaterally sanctioned a military operation on Venezuelan soil.
CAPTURED Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, upon being produced in the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) office in New York late on Saturday local time, said his first words since his capture.
As Maduro was escorted into the office, cameras captured the Venezuelan President saying, "Good night! Happy New Year."
Images of Maduro while being taken to New York showed the Venezuelan President making a thumbs-up gesture.
The Venezuelan president and his wife Cilia Flores were earlier captured from Caracas after US President Donald Trump unilaterally sanctioned a military operation on Venezuelan soil.
Following his capture, Maduro and his wife were brought to the US and subsequently flown to New York to be jailed, following their indictment on alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
What awaits Maduro?
The former Venezuelan president and his wife are currently in the custody of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
It is currently not clear whether Maduro and his wife's trial will take place in New York on Florida, but it is understood that the Venezuelan president and his wife will be kept in a New York jail cell for the time being.
Both Maduro and his wife have been indicted on a litany of charges, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that the former Venezuelan leader and Celia Flores face charges related to "Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States".
The 25-page indictment alleges that starting as early as 1999, Maduro and others of his administration worked with international drug trafficking organizations, including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas, Colombian narco-terrorist groups, and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to ship illicit drugs into the US.
The indictment also details specific actions taken by Maduro to that end, including the selling of diplomatic passports and the arrangement of private flights "to assist traffickers seeking to move drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela under diplomatic cover."
Maduro and his wife also stand accused of trafficking cocaine seized by Venezuelan authorities, enriching themselves in the process. They have been accused of running their own state-sponsored gangs to protect their operation and allegedly ordered "kidnappings, beating and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation."
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