US indicts Venezuela’s Maduro for drug trafficking
The United States has indicted Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, along with 14 current and former government officials, with criminal charges including drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and corruption, alleging that the Venezuelan regime partnered with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to traffic cocaine into the US.
The indictment offers a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and/or conviction.
A four-count superseding indictment was unsealed on March 26 in the Southern District of New York, charging Nicolás Maduro Moros, Diosdado Cabello Rondón, head of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly; Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, aka “El Pollo,” former director of military intelligence; Clíver Antonio Alcalá Cordones, former General in the Venezuelan armed forces; Luciano Marín Arango, aka “Ivan Marquez”, a member of the FARC’s secretariat, which is the FARC’s leadership body; and Seuxis Paucis Hernández Solarte, aka “Jesús Santrich”, a member of the FARC’s Central High Command, which is the FARC’s second-highest leadership body, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
The case is pending before US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.
The DoJ refers to Maduro (pictured) as ‘the former president of Venezuela’, in its acknowledgement of the legitimacy of self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaidó. “
The Venezuelan regime, once led by Nicolás Maduro Moros, remains plagued by criminality and corruption,” according to US Attorney General William Barr.
“For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities. Today’s announcement is focused on rooting out the extensive corruption within the Venezuelan government – a system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government.”
“The US will not allow these corrupt Venezuelan officials to use the US banking system to move their illicit proceeds from South America nor further their criminal schemes,” Barr added.
The US Department of State, through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro Moros, up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Cabello Rondón, Carvajal Barrios, and Alcalá Cordones, and up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Marín Arango.
In addition to Maduro’s indictment, an indictment unsealed on Thursday in the District of Columbia charges Vladimir Padrino López, Venezuela’s Minister of Defence, alleging that from March 2014 until May 2019 he conspired with others to distribute cocaine on board an aircraft registered in the US.
