Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was captured early Saturday during a U.S. military operation, has landed in New York City, where he will soon be booked along with his wife, Cilia.
Maduro arrived on U.S. soil at around 5 p.m. Eastern after being taken into custody by U.S. officials at at his palace in Caracas, Venezuela. The U.S. plane carrying him landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Orange County, New York, where he deboarded surrounded by dozens of federal officers. He then traveled by helicopter with officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration to a heliport in the Big Apple.
His arrival comes as he is set to stand trial on drug and weapons charges under a new indictment from the Department of Justice. The indictment mainly alleges that Maduro has been complicit in the drug trafficking trade by enabling “violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States.”
Maduro and his wife were taken into custody during a military operation authorized by President Donald Trump, a mission that resulted in several strikes on Caracas and Maduro and his wife’s capture. The operation lasted under an hour and did not lead to any deaths of U.S. service members, though an unspecified number were injured.
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This is a developing story.