Fallen Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro could face the death penalty if convicted on federal drug-trafficking and other charges.
The strongman was nabbed at his Caracas palace in a daring US raid and is now being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn pending his arraignment Monday on a four-count indictment.
If found guilty, Maduro is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars — or worse.
Under federal law, a defendant found guilty of violating the Controlled Substances Act “as part of a continuing criminal enterprise” can be eligible for the death penalty, according to the Library of Congress.
Federal capital offenses fall under categories that are, namely, homicide, treason or espionage and drug offenses that do not include a homicide.
Still, death sentences for drug offenses are far from common.
“Most capital offenses involve a homicide,” the site said. “More defendants are sentenced to death for murder than for all of the other federal capital offenses.”
In a post on X on Saturday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts” but did not mention what sentence the Justice Department would seek if there is a conviction.
Here’s the latest on Nicolás Maduro’s capture:
- Marco Rubio says Venezuela’s VP Delcy Rodríguez isn’t a legitimate leader — as he outlines how next president will be chosen
- Nicolas Maduro flashes peace sign as deposed dictator’s grim-faced wife seen for first time since arrest, flight to US
- Mayor Mamdani’s comrades in DSA demand Trump release Nicolas Maduro: ‘Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution!’
- Maduro, wife greeted by jeers of ‘down with the dictator’ by hundreds of revelers at Brooklyn lock up
President Trump’s raid on Venezuela has drawn comparisons to the 1989 strike on Panama to capture Manual Noriega on orders from President George H. W. Bush — with the US opting for prison for Noriega.
Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders were originally named in a 2020 drug trafficking indictment, with a federal grand jury this year adding the new counts to the complaint.
The new indictment names Maduro and a half-dozen others and charges them with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and two counts tied to possession of machine guns.
Maduro and Flores are currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
A rep for the US Attorney of the Southern District of New York did not respond to a Post request for comment.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
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