SerpApi.Org
Disgraced former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife are scheduled to stand trial June 1, 2027, on charges that they participated in a decadeslong conspiracy to flood the United States with cocaine.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old appointee of former President Bill Clinton, set the date Wednesday at the joint request of federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Maduro and Cilia Flores. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges they face, including drug trafficking and possession of machine guns, and could face life in prison if convicted.
Defense attorneys are expected to begin filing motions challenging the indictment in early September. Oral arguments on those requests are scheduled for Nov. 17.
The trial date could still be delayed by disputes over classified evidence and other complications arising from the extraordinary case. Hellerstein appeared skeptical that the parties would resolve all classified-information questions by June, noting that the process can drag on.
“This is a realistic schedule. We don’t think it’s going to slip,” Maduro attorney Barry Pollack told the court. Pollack said the parties would notify the judge if problems emerged that threatened the date.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, appeared separately at the defense table during the roughly 15-minute hearing, surrounded by their attorneys and wearing tan prison uniforms.
The deposed dictator smiled, greeted court personnel, and shook hands with lawyers after entering the courtroom, according to the Associated Press. He listened through headphones to a Spanish-language interpretation of the proceedings and occasionally took notes. Deputy U.S. marshals escorted him from the courtroom after he waved toward the gallery.
The courtroom pleasantries represented a dramatic comedown for a strongman who once ruled Venezuela from a fortified presidential compound.
American forces captured Maduro and Flores at their Caracas residence during a middle-of-the-night raid in early January, conducted by President Donald Trump's Department of War under the leadership of War Secretary Pete Hegseth. U.S. personnel descended on the compound and fought through Venezuelan air defenses before extracting the couple and transporting them to New York.
Trump at the time called Maduro an "illegitimate dictator" and the "kingpin of a vast criminal network," saying he and his wife were captured in an "extraordinary military operation."
Maduro and Flores have since been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Federal prosecutors accuse the pair of participating in a conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S. over more than 25 years. They also face firearms-related charges.
The complexity of prosecuting a former foreign ruler is expected to produce an aggressive series of legal challenges before jurors ever hear the case next summer.
Pollack has signaled that he will attack the legality of Maduro’s capture and argue that his client is protected by immunity because the alleged crimes occurred while Maduro was in office. The defense has also complained that Washington interfered with Maduro’s representation by initially preventing the Venezuelan government from paying his legal bills.
Hellerstein rejected an earlier request to dismiss the case on those grounds. The Treasury Department later permitted Venezuela to finance Maduro’s defense without violating U.S. sanctions.
Maduro first assumed the presidency of Venezuela in 2013. The U.S. and dozens of other countries stopped recognizing him as the country’s legitimate leader following the widely disputed 2018 election, but Maduro clung to power until American forces removed him.
Following his capture, former Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as acting president. Rodriguez has reshuffled the country’s armed forces and complied with several demands from Washington. The U.S. lifted sanctions against her in April that had been in effect since 2018.
US ALLOWS VENEZUELA TO PAY LEGAL FEES FOR MADURO'S CASE IN NEW YORK
Maduro’s lawyers will now try to turn the case into a sweeping argument over presidential immunity, international law, and U.S. foreign policy.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, will seek to keep the focus on a more straightforward allegation, that the former dictator helped oversee a massive criminal enterprise aimed at pumping drugs into the U.S.
