Maduro, family and Venezuelan officials face 'narco-terrorism' grand jury indictment. Here are the charges

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Saturday 03 January 2026 10:52 EST


The Department of Justice has unsealed a sweeping grand jury indictment accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a massive cocaine trafficking operation. A 25-page document from federal prosecutors in New York City claims Maduro, his wife and Venezuelan officials have “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”

The four-count indictment, unsealed hours after Donald Trump announced the capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, claims the Venezuelan president and his family enriched themselves with a “cycle of narcotics-based corruption.”

That alleged drug-trafficking conspiracy “lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” according to the document, which is signed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton.

The new indictment echoes a previous 2020 indictment against the Venezuelan president, but the superseding document includes charges against his wife. Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra and Venezuelan officials Diosdado Cabello and Ramon Rodriguez Chacn as well as the alleged head of Tren de Aragua are also charged.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/maduro-venezuela-charges-narco-terrorism-b2893964.html

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Original indictment (2020) PRESS RELEASE - Nicolás Maduro Moros and 14 Current and Former Venezuelan Officials Charged with Narco-Terrorism, Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Criminal Charges

2020 indictment FILES (includes links to PDFs) - Documents Related to the March 26, 2020 Press Conference


Superceding indictment (2025/2026) FILE (PDF) - https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1422326/dl

[lapfog_1]

1. something about possession of machine guns...

as if US law applies around the world. It was laughable.

[Historic NY]

26. Start locking up military people

[EarlG]

2. Cool

I guess we're going to try them, sentence them to 45 years in prison, and then pardon them.

Isn't that the Trump policy on South/Central American drug-running presidents?

[Trumpdumper]

3. Don't be silly. This ain't your father's DOJ.

Bondi, Blanche, Pirro, Halligan et al will fuck it up to a fare-thee-well. Hung jury at best.

[EarlG]

5. Lol, good point

Silly me for thinking they could get a conviction.

[Jack Valentino]

24. A juror could reasonably have a 'reasonable doubt' just because it's Trump et al

bringing the charges---- starting with an arrest which violated international law
in the manner in which it was carried out....

[BumRushDaShow]

11. But guess who did the first indictments - BILL BARR

and I bet he is the one behind all of this operation because he has been there done that -

*Was head of OLC that justified the invasion of Panama and capture of Manuel Noriega under Poppy
*Was in the thick of Iran-Contra under Raygun

The current clueless crew (including Kegsbreath) have no background or experience doing what was just done but Bill Barr DOES.

[ancianita]

16. NOW it all makes sense. Thank you for the Panama/Barr precedent.

If this is true, some intel person should tip off the gang of eight about Barr.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. IMHO, this is a BILL BARR PRODUCTION

(just like Gingrich is sitting there "behind the scenes", i expect Barr is too - he is the "clean-up" man)

And as I posted elsewhere, today is the 36th anniversary of the surrender of Manuel Noriega.

[ancianita]

20. I hope you're right. AND I hope there's intel that can prove you're right.

Barr has gotten away with murder... yep, I said it.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. There was an article back in 2019 about his handling of the Mueller report

which mirrored his handling of the Noriega operation - Barr’s Playbook: He Misled Congress When Omitting Parts of Justice Dep’t Memo in 1989

Can't find the article but apparently Rubio was following some OLC opinion to justify this. And this was despite their denials almost 2 months ago, of having any "legal authority" to strike inside Venezuela, (but still using some OLC opinion to justify the boat strikes) - Trump admin tells Congress it currently lacks legal justification to strike Venezuela

So am wondering if they are using that 1989 OLC opinion (which was used for Noriega).

[ancianita]

22. Thanks. These days, justifications, however flimsy, are made as deterrents to any of this ever seeing a courtroom

or even a congressional hearing.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. I heard a CBS news radio report this morning

that indicated that the 1989 OLC opinion WAS what was used for justifying this Maduro thing. That confirms that no one rescinded it.

So this is nothing more than a Panama/Noreiga redux and it may end up being used for drumming up other "invasions" and removals.

[ancianita]

38. Interesting... now I wonder who CBS's likely source was.

[Vinca]

4. Is there a price tag on the pardon yet?

[COL Mustard]

6. Bidding started at

100,000 barrels of oil, is what I heard.

[Igel]

10. Piker.

They seized the Skipper, which can hold up to 2 million barrels, 20x your 'opening bid'.

Bidding has to start at 2 million, at least.

[COL Mustard]

12. LOLOLOL!!!!

I been in the oil bidness all day, and it shows!

[Bayard]

7. Show me the hard proof,

Not accusations from loony tunes.

[COL Mustard]

13. Ya don't have to call me NAMES!!!!

I used to watch Looney Tunes, and sometimes I are one!

[GreenWave]

8. Maduro, as President, should get the same delaying powers that Trump had.

Bog it down. Call it a witch hunt to distract from Epstein.

[ancianita]

17. That would mean Maduro has to have enough funds on him for those kinds of legal moves. He doesn't. But the felon did.

Instead, Maduro (literally captured in his bedroom) will be forced to accept US federal legal representation. Which already costs taxpayers; you can be sure that filing a bunch of costly "due process" delay motions isn't going to happen.

[Jack Valentino]

25. If he's REALLY some kind of 'major drug kingpin', wouldn't he have some third-country bank accounts

somewhere which the US could not freeze ?? (Switzerland)

If he doesn't, that would tend towards his innocence of the charges, IMHO....
or maybe he just isn't too bright...

[ancianita]

27. LOL ... like his federal public defender would run cash interference for him? Cute. You have to know this is about

Maduro accessing USD currency, not offshore holdings. You do realize Maduro's outside his usual money network, right? And so his federal public defender doesn't have jurisdictional power to get money for him from across the border.
You also realize that our government is a kakistocracy, right? You think they don't know how these things work?

You think the guys the felon removes from another country are for the benefit of that country's people? or ours?
Superficially the Trump administration loves putting on a veneer that it’s protecting U.S. interests and national security, but you and I know Trumpism is proven pay-to-play kakistocracy and a bottomless well of assorted lazy hustles and grifts. These are not serious people.
To your point about Maduro not being smart ... A LOT of rich people aren't smart; they don't have to be when they can hire smart people. We've witnessed frontmen for both domestic & international oligarch war games for years now. And in this round, Maduro's out. The felon's playbook is thick from a lifetime of chipping away at rule of law. And so...
Using a Spanish speaking right wing Sec of State (U of Miami Law) from an old Batista stronghold (Cuba), the felon's hit list for the Americas is just getting started. It's another playbook narrative to give his doj more time to redact the names of the felon's pedophile "friends who'd be hurt."

[Jack Valentino]

29. Quite possibly you are smarter than me. You are obviously much better at 'word salad'.

I have not followed anything about any case against Maduro, other than surmising that right-wingers hated him because he was purported to be some kind of 'socialist'--- but also reported to be some kind of authoritarian...

When you say "you have to know" you give me too much credit-- perhaps I have been
too busy somewhere else to 'know' whatever point you were trying to make,
but that phrase is thus rather insulting and patronizing.

As for the word "kakistocracy", I have never seen it before in my life.
Is that some kind of made-up word for DU and other more-left-than-right websites??
If I care enough to inquire, I will consult A.I., although I have been told on this site
that doing so will be some kind of mortal sin......


Just in case there is any misunderstanding,
"you have to know" that anything I have posted is
by no means any defense of Trump or his gaggle of yes-men and women....

I wish that Venezuela had the military might to swoop in some dark night
and remove TRUMP to face justice for crimes against humanity
in a Venezuelan court....

[ancianita]

31. Okay. I understand we have different exposures to stuff. Sorry for the "you have to know." I didn't intend to patronize,

just thought of it as a turn of phrase, really. Mortal sin or not, I use DeepMind AI (the best in the world) all the time, and I join you in your wish for the felon (maybe I sin by judging him, but Jesus said the same directly to the Jewish pharisees and sadducees). Plus, you had me at "crimes against humanity." Far as I'm concerned we're good.

[Jack Valentino]

32. Thanks. I'm good with you also.

(although you really beat the hell out of me! HAHAHA I won't remember it tormorrow!)

[ancianita]

33. Nah. Sometimes I just get carried away...

[LiberalArkie]

9. I think the question is, how much will Maduro have to give Trump for the pardon?

[KS Toronado]

14. "transport tons of cocaine to the United States,"

Why no mention of fentanyl? It was always fentanyl fentanyl fentanyl fentanyl every time he mentioned
narco-terrorists or when he bombed fishing boats.

And now no mention of it in his indictment.

[Justice matters.]

15. It's because the coke is don jr. fav dope...

and he's tired of having to pay for it... so now, he will get it free for controlling the trafic himself.

[ancianita]

19. Good and reasonable question re fentanyl. But more often the felon broadly mixed it up, saying it was about drugs.

from a PBS factcheck article...

Trump said the boats were carrying fentanyl during the Oct. 15 press conference.

"And you can see it, the boats get hit, and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean," Trump said. "It's like floating in bags. It's all over the place."

He has shared aerial videos of some of the boat strikes on Truth Social, and no bags of drugs are visible in the videos.

Additionally, most illicit fentanyl in the U.S. comes from Mexico, not Venezuela. It enters the U.S. mainly through the southern border at official ports of entry, and it's smuggled in mostly by U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-claim-that-each-boat-strike-off-venezuelas-coast-saves-25000-lives

Good New Yorker article on the real reason...

...In August, however, the hard-liners began to win out, according to someone with knowledge of the Administration’s internal deliberations. The shift seemed to mark a victory for Rubio. But the change didn’t reflect Rubio’s influence so much as the involvement of a new player in the policy fight: Stephen Miller, the President’s deputy chief of staff and the head of the White House Homeland Security Council. “Miller sided with Rubio not because of regime change,” the source told me. Rather, it was because Venezuela presented “an outlet for the belief that the President can just kill these guys” as part of an open-ended war on drugs and crime. “Stephen is a lot of the energy behind the bombings,” the source said. “He is owning the Western Hemisphere portfolio: immigration, security issues, and going after the cartels. He convenes working groups almost every day. He’s been very top-down with the Department of Defense about what he wants to see. Hegseth’s team just says ‘yes.’ They don’t push back. Miller got told no for similar stuff in the first term. He doesn’t have people there to say ‘No, this isn’t a good idea’ anymore.”

For Miller, the military strikes help expand the President’s power, while also reinforcing the narrative of Venezuelan immigrants as “alien enemies.” As a former Trump Administration official put it, “this just feels like the militarization of domestic policy. How do you stay in power? You create an ‘other.’ You say that we’re under attack. You create a casus belli. You blame the other for everything. This is happening while you have the deployment of National Guardsmen to cities. You’re getting people used to these kinds of actions. This is expanding the definition of the use of force.”

The implications of Trump’s use of the military, the former White House official said, are not lost on other Latin American countries, either. “If you’re Panama, you think this is about you. If you’re Colombia, you think it’s about you,” he told me. “You prove to the Mexicans that you’ll do what you say. The Brazilians thought this was about them. If you think it’s a signal, it is a signal.”....

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-real-target-of-trumps-war-on-drug-boats

[Bluetus]

23. "Narco-terrorism" is not a thing. It is just a slogan.

There is no law anywhere called "narco-terrorism" But that's all they want to talk about in the indictment.

The indictment never mentions fentanyl. Not one time. The indictment talks a lot about cocaine, and correctly focused on the role of the FARC. The problem is that the "C" in FARC is COLUMBIA, not Venezuela.

They have no intention of this ever going to court. That's why Trump moved it to New York. He wants to blame Mamdani when the case gets thrown out.

It is actually a lot more likely that Maduro and his family will just move to St Maarten with a mansion rented for him and a million bucks in his pocket.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. "They have no intention of this ever going to court. That's why Trump moved it to New York. He wants to blame Mamdani"

Since the case is in FEDERAL court and not STATE court, Mamdani would have no role in it. It would be the problem of the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY (Jay Clayton, who was SEC Chair during 45's first term).

[Bluetus]

39. What's you r point?

I said Trump would blame Mamdani. That has nothing to do with jurisdiction. None of this has anything to do with laws or courts.

[BumRushDaShow]

40. Well we know he is a pathological liar

But it should be made clear, at least to DUers, about jurisdictional matters (i.e., Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is not involved ).

[Bluetus]

42. Sure, but Trump will still blame "New York"

or maybe Mamdani personally, and the media will repeat whatever Trump says.

Do you have another theory why Trump had this prosecuted in NY? Why not in DC? Why not in a border state? Why not in one of the states with the highest opiate abuse (SC, TN, KY, OH)?

[BumRushDaShow]

44. That may be coming

if they follow the Noriega Playbook

Noriega did end up charged in multiple places including France and Panama.

But the reason why they went to NY was because THAT is where Maduro was originally charged back in 2020, LONG before Mamdani was on any politician's radar (see this OP - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143592222) and in the comments there, here are links to the press release/charges from 2020 -

Original indictment (2020) PRESS RELEASE - Nicolás Maduro Moros and 14 Current and Former Venezuelan Officials Charged with Narco-Terrorism, Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Criminal Charges

2020 indictment FILES (includes links to PDFs) - Documents Related to the March 26, 2020 Press Conference

From the 2020 press release -

DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit, New York Strike Force, and Miami Field Division conducted the investigation. This case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda L. Houle, Matthew J. Laroche, Jason A. Richman, and Kyle A. Wirshba are in charge of the prosecution.

Back in 2020, some of his cohorts were also charged in D.C. & FL. as well.

What they did this time was enter a "superseding indictment" to add additional charges.

[ificandream]

41. "Narco-terrorism" is the latest in the grab words R's use to give their favorite media (Fox) something to hold onto.

DEI, Sharia Law and woke are just a few. Now it's narco-terrorism. R's bend the meanings for their own use. It's how they use the media.

[JohnnyRingo]

28. Won't we have to prove Maduro was shipping drugs here and killing Americans?

I'm not sure we can try him for smuggling drugs into Mexico or Europe.
Can we go the Ireland and try terrorists who struck the UK?

[Wiz Imp]

30. Yep. Which is why the chances of him being convicted on those charges is extremely small.

[Bluetus]

43. I don't see how they can convict Maduro of anything discussed in the indictment.

They didn't even mention any specific laws.

[The Wizard]

36. The administration's conflation of

terrorism and the war on drugs plays to a narrative that plays on our fears. Can anyone define narco-terror?
We have a long history of engaging in regime change for oil that goes back to Iran in 1953. Every country that nationalized their oil has had the United States either undermine their government or overthrow it, Venezuela being the latest victim.
We have become a rogue nation that is engaged in world domination. Every country that has tried world domination has collapsed because of an unsustainable military footprint (endless war) or had the rest of the world unify in opposition. Either way, it is incumbent on we the people of the United States to eliminate this threat to civilization or succumb to it.

[travelingthrulife]

37. Bullshit. Trump just freed two narcoterrorists. I hope the defense uses this in the trial.

[ImmigrantsWGTJD]

45. Maduro isn't a saint.. but

that doesn't mean we have any rights to do what we did. Venezuela should manage their affairs and we should support the democratic members of the political establishment.

[The Grand Illuminist]

46. I hope they are tried in NYC.

Therefore Manuro would have a better chance of a fair and just not guilty because of how he was arraigned (kidnapped).