Captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have both pleaded not guilty to a four-count charge filed against them by the United States government before a Manhattan federal court on Monday.
Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment, marking the first time a former head of state has faced the Maduro narco-terrorism charges on U.S. soil following a military capture.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that the couple was escorted into the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse under heavy security, just days after a high-stakes U.S. military operation in Caracas led to their arrest.
The charges against them include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and various weapons-related offenses involving machine guns and destructive devices.
“I am innocent, I am not guilty, I am a decent man and I am the President of Venezuela,” Maduro pleaded not guilty after the four-count charge was read to him on Monday.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein presided over the Maduro case.
The 92-year-old was appointed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He became a senior judge in 2011.
Hellerstein has presided over many high-profile cases throughout his career, including a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and many 9/11-related cases.
Also, Maduro was represented by Barry Pollack, a seasoned trial lawyer who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a former in-house accountant for Enron.
Pollack works for the firm Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP. He helped broker the plea deal that saw Assange plead guilty in 2024 to a single felony count for publishing U.S. military secrets.
Cilia Flores, the wife of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, was also represented by Mark Donnelly, a Texas-based attorney, according to court documents filed this morning.
Donnelly assisted in the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Maduro pleaded not guilty after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from what prosecutors said was his role in a scheme to import “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States and enrich himself, his family, and senior members of the Venezuelan government.
The indictment was unsealed Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into military custody in an overnight operation and brought to the U.S to face criminal charges.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said.
Maduro, Flores, and four others are named as defendants in the indictment, including Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro.
Maduro is facing four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Flores is accused of brokering a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office and allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
