2026-01-05T15:01:30.200Z
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- US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise overnight raid in Caracas.
- He was flown to New York under heavy security to face sweeping drug and weapons charges.
- Grainy photos show Maduro’s tightly guarded transfer to his first Manhattan court appearance.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance in a US court, and photos released on Monday morning show him on his way there.
US forces captured the longtime Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an overnight raid in Caracas over the weekend and flew them out of the country after months of escalating tensions with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Maduro is facing federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear in a Manhattan federal court at noon ET. Demand to attend his appearance is expected to be high — so much so that the courthouse has prepared at least one overflow room with video feed into the courtroom where Maduro will face the judge, an official told Business Insider.
He’s expected to appear before Manhattan federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, who has been overseeing the wider case for years. US prosecutors first indicted Maduro, along with other members of his government, for narco-terrorism in 2020.
After arriving in New York, Maduro was reportedly held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal jail notorious for harsh conditions, where he awaited his initial court appearance alongside other high-profile detainees.
The grainy photos below show Maduro’s tightly guarded transfer to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan US Courthouse on Monday.