Nicolás Maduro, wife Cilia Flores to appear before US federal court in New York
By Anjali Sharma
NEW YORK – Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are scheduled to appear before a US federal court in New York on Monday after they captured and transferred to the American custody, according to the US authorities on Sunday
The hearing will take place in the Southern District of New York. Officials said the couple is scheduled to appear at noon local time.
Media reported that this will be their first appearance before a US judge since they were taken out of Venezuela over the weekend. Washington confirmed that Maduro and Flores were detained after a large US-led military operation.
They were arrested in Caracas and removed from the country in a coordinated action involved US law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Both Maduro and his wife were first taken to the USS Iwo Jima, a US Navy warship, before being flown to the United States. Both arrived in New York on Saturday afternoon.
Maduro was later transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn at around 8.52 pm local time.
US officials said he was not being held in a separate unit.
Details about Flores’ detention arrangements were not immediately clear, media reported.
The Brooklyn facility, built in the 1990s to ease prison overcrowding has housed several high-profile detainees over the years.
These include former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, singer R Kelly, and music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Alleged cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García was also held there while awaited trial, according to media reports.
US prosecutors have filed charges against Maduro in New York, along with members of his family and senior figures from his government.
The indictment accused him of involvement in alleged narco-terrorism and of conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States.
The documents unsealed by US Attorney General Pam Bondi also list weapons-related charges. These include possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns and other prohibited firearms, media reported.
