The United States (U.S) Department of Justice has confirmed that it is set to prosecute Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over alleged narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.
U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the move to prosecute the Venezuelan President on Saturday after he was captured alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, during a military operation in Caracas.
The operation was announced by U.S President Donald Trump on Saturday, describing it as a “large-scale strike.”
Bondi said Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.” she wrote on X.
“On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.”
Recall that Maduro was indicted in an American court for alleged narcoterrorism in 2020, with the U.S. Department of Justice accusing him of leading the “Cartel of the Suns” and conspiring with the FARC to “flood the United States with cocaine.”
The statement issued by the U.S Department of Justice in 2020 reads: “For more than 20 years, Maduro and several high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities. Today’s announcement is focused on rooting out the extensive corruption within the Venezuelan government – a system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government. The United States will not allow these corrupt Venezuelan officials to use the U.S. banking system to move their illicit proceeds from South America nor further their criminal schemes.”
“Today we announce criminal charges against Nicolás Maduro Moros for running, together with his top lieutenants, a narco-terrorism partnership with the FARC for the past 20 years.”
In August 2025, the U.S. Department of State announced an increase in the reward to $50 million for information that led to Maduro’s arrest and conviction after the Department of the Treasury sanctioned Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
“Maduro helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. As he gained power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Department of State previously said in a news release.
“Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC; coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns.”
