A newly unsealed charging document alleges Venezuela’s former leader and his inner circle built a narco-terror enterprise that funneled cocaine through the Caribbean and Central America while enriching regime elites.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A sweeping federal indictment released Saturday accuses ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of orchestrating a drug-fueled “culture of corruption” that extended well beyond Venezuela’s borders and destabilized large parts of Latin America, including regions close to the United States.
The allegations were made public just hours after President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture and removal from power. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York on four counts, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, and would be brought to the United States to face trial. Bondi said the defendants “will soon face the full wrath of American justice” on U.S. soil.
According to the unsealed indictment, a federal grand jury found that Maduro and senior members of his regime “enabled corruption fueled by drug trafficking throughout” the region, including Mexico and Central America, while empowering violent criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua.
Maduro Indictment by yourNEWS Media
The 25-page indictment was signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, a Trump-appointed prosecutor. It names six defendants: Maduro; Flores; Maduro’s 35-year-old son from his first marriage, Nicolás Maduro Guerra; Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero; and two senior figures in Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello Rondón and Ramón Rodríguez Chacín.
Prosecutors allege Maduro “participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their partner drug traffickers.” The indictment describes a patronage system known as the Cartel de Los Soles, named after the sun insignia worn by high-ranking Venezuelan military officials, through which profits from cocaine trafficking allegedly flowed to civilian, military, and intelligence officials loyal to the regime.
In November 2025, the Trump administration’s State Department announced it had designated the Cartel de Los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote at the time that the cartel “is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.”
The indictment states that Venezuela’s geographic position made it particularly valuable to drug traffickers and alleges that when Hugo Chávez took power in 1999, the country increasingly became a safe haven for narcotics operations. In that environment, prosecutors say, cocaine trafficking flourished, with U.S. State Department estimates from around 2020 placing between 200 and 250 metric tons of cocaine transiting Venezuela annually.
Federal prosecutors further allege that Maduro, his family members, and political allies partnered with narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups to ship cocaine from Venezuela to the United States via transshipment points in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. According to the indictment, traffickers paid local officials in those countries for protection, while those payments were then used to maintain and expand political power.
The charging document also claims that the Maduro regime facilitated the growth of violent narco-terrorist organizations by channeling cocaine profits into their operations. Groups identified as collaborators include Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN), Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, and Tren de Aragua.
Maduro Guerra, the indictment alleges, personally participated in drug trafficking activities, including working to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela to Miami around 2017. Prosecutors say he discussed sending lower-quality cocaine to New York when it could not be sold in Miami, arranging a 500-kilogram shipment to be unloaded near South Florida, and using scrap-metal containers to smuggle cocaine into New York ports.
Maduro Guerra has served as a deputy in Venezuela’s National Assembly since 2021 and remains a member of his father’s political party. The indictment describes his alleged actions as part of a broader effort by the regime to monetize cocaine trafficking while consolidating political control.
The case represents one of the most expansive criminal actions ever brought by the United States against a sitting or recently deposed foreign head of state and underscores the Trump administration’s long-standing claims that the Maduro government functioned as a narco-state embedded within regional drug networks.
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