{"id":490681,"date":"2026-01-04T01:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490681\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:28:18","slug":"ousted-venezuelan-dictator-nicolas-maduro-arrives-in-nyc-by-helicopter-hours-after-capture-by-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/490681\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro arrives in NYC by helicopter hours after capture by US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ousted Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, touched down in New York City Saturday night after being captured by US forces in a daring overnight operation.<\/p>\n<p>The pair \u2014 who landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Upstate Newburgh around 5 p.m. \u2014 arrived via helicopter at a Manhattan heliport just before 7 p.m. and were hauled away in a heavily armed tactical vehicle called a \u201cBearcat\u201d surrounded by a small motorcade.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/03\/world-news\/venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro-wife-captured-after-large-scale-strikes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, will first be transported to the Drug Enforcement Administration Headquarters in Chelsea, where they will be processed before returning to the West 30th Street Heliport and choppered to Brooklyn, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>One of the helicopters believed to be carrying Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrives after they were captured overnight in Venezuela, at the Westside Heliport in New York City, U.S., January 3, 2026. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>From there, a motorcade will take them to the Metropolitan Detention Center, as they are set to face narco-terrorism charges in the Southern District of New York, sources said.<\/p>\n<p>DEA awaiting arrival of Nicolas Maduro chopper at W 34st heliport. Robert Miller<\/p>\n<p>Nicolas Maduro chopper arrival at W 34st heliport. Robert Miller<\/p>\n<p>Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife arriving by helicopter in Manhattan as seen from Weehawken, NJ on January 3, 2026.  Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n<p>President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro lands at the 30th St. heliport. Aristide Economopoulos<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Department of Justice Federal Officers patrol outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>The tyrant is expected in the federal court as early as Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Venezuelan leader and his wife were captured by US forces during a high-stakes military operation Saturday morning in Caracas, leaving the South American country in a constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro and Flores were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the latest on Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s capture:<\/p>\n<p>Maduro\u2019s son, Nicholas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, who\u2019s known as \u201cThe Prince,\u201d was also charged alongside his parents for the illegal trafficking of thousands of tons of cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the couple will face the \u201cfull wrath of American justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The US will run the embattled nation until a transition government is in place, \u201cuntil such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ousted Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, touched down in New York City Saturday night&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":490682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,51161,12783,405,403,5226,5225,92550,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,221118,1154,2969,32322],"class_list":{"0":"post-490681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dea","10":"tag-fbi","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-nicolas-maduro","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115834238119929429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}