NEW WINDSOR – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, captured by the U.S. government in a precise military operation, was set to land at New York Stewart International Airport in New Windsor on Saturday afternoon.
Maduro is currently in U.S. military custody and is expected to be transferred to federal authorities upon landing at Stewart, a public military airport. Maduro is expected to be arraigned in federal court in the Southern District of New York next week, possibly as early as Monday.
U.S. forces nabbed Maduro and his wife early Saturday morning. President Donald Trump said the U.S. government would run Venezuela at least temporarily and would tap Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to sell “large amounts” to other countries.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. On Saturday, the Justice Department unsealed a new indictment against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, describing their regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” sustained by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the United States with cocaine.
Trump posted a photo on his Truth Social account that he said showed Maduro in custody, wearing a blindfold and a sweatsuit. Maduro’s capture marked the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign against Venezuela, which included months of strikes on vessels accused of smuggling drugs to the U.S.
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