US Unseals Indictment Charging Nicolás Maduro, His Wife And Son With Drug Trafficking; Trump Says They Were Captured

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors on Saturday unsealed a 25-page indictment that charges Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores and their adult son Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra with participating in a drug-trafficking conspiracy, according to court documents.

The indictment names Maduro, Flores and their son — identified in the papers as “the Prince” — alleging a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and possession of machineguns and destructive devices. Prosecutors also charge Maduro with a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil.” The filing was unsealed hours after Trump said the U.S. had carried out “a large-scale strike” in Venezuela and had captured and flown Maduro and his wife out of the country. Officials did not immediately confirm the administration’s account independently.

At the press conference, Trump said the pair would be taken to New York. It remained unclear whether Maduro’s son had been detained.

The indictment asserts that Maduro “sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” Prosecutors allege that the illicit activity enriched members of Maduro’s family, including his wife and his son, who serves in Venezuela’s National Assembly.

“This cycle of narcotics-based corruption 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,”

the indictment states.

In his remarks, Trump described Maduro as “the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States,” and said the indictment alleges Maduro personally oversaw a cartel referred to as “Cartel de Las Olas.”

A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. officials have cited the new charges as part of the legal rationale for the strike in Venezuela, which the administration carried out without congressional authorization. Vice President J.D. Vance wrote on social media that the U.S. had offered Venezuela “multiple off ramps,” and urged critics to note Maduro’s prior indictments in U.S. courts.

In 2020, prosecutors in New York, Washington, D.C., and Florida charged Maduro and 14 other current and former Venezuelan officials with narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking. That earlier indictment did not name Flores or the couple’s son; the document unsealed Saturday is a revision that adds them as defendants.

One of the prosecutors who led the earlier case, Amanda Houle, now serves as the criminal chief at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office. The broader investigation was supervised by Emil Bove, a former Justice Department official and one-time defense lawyer for Donald Trump who is now a federal judge, according to court records.

The fresh charges come weeks after President Trump granted a controversial pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. Trump defended that pardon during Saturday’s remarks.

Details about custody, evidence and next steps in the U.S. court process were not immediately available. Gregory Svirnovskiy contributed to this report.