United States Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed a sweeping federal indictment Saturday charging Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro Moros and his inner circle with running a decades-long “narco-terrorism” partnership that turned the Venezuelan state into a vehicle for massive cocaine trafficking.
The superseding indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, targets the highest echelons of Venezuelan power.
Alongside Maduro, the Department of Justice has charged his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, and his son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra—known by the aliases “Nicolasito” and “The Prince.”
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Also named are Diosdado Cabello Rondón, widely considered the second most powerful man in Venezuela; Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, a former interior minister; and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua.
A “State-Sponsored” Cartel
Prosecutors allege that for over 25 years, the defendants managed the “Cartel de Los Soles” (Cartel of the Suns), leveraging Venezuela’s military and political institutions to enrich themselves and flood the United States with cocaine. The indictment outlines a system where diplomatic passports were sold to traffickers for immunity, and state-owned assets—including planes from the oil company PDVSA—were used to transport drugs.
The court documents detail specific overt acts, including allegations that Maduro’s son utilized state aircraft to move drugs, allegedly boasting that the planes could fly “wherever it wanted,” including into U.S. airspace.
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Terrorist Alliances
The charges go beyond simple trafficking. The DOJ asserts the regime forged operational alliances with designated terrorist groups and violent cartels, including the FARC, the ELN, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and the Zetas.
According to the filing, the defendants provided these groups with military-grade weaponry—including machine guns and grenade launchers—in exchange for protection of drug routes. “Niño Guerrero,” the head of Tren de Aragua, is accused of providing armed security details equipped with AK-47s and AR-15s to guard shipments moving toward the U.S. border.
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The Charges
The defendants face a litany of federal charges, including:
- Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy
- Conspiracy to Import Cocaine into the United States
- Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices
The indictment seeks the forfeiture of all assets derived from the alleged conspiracy.
If convicted, the charges carry mandatory minimum sentences that could result in life imprisonment for the Venezuelan leadership.
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