It is a indictmentthat is, the accusation made by a grand jury in the Southern District Court of New York after determining that there was sufficient evidence to charge him with the charges of narco-terrorist conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine.
Maduro’s relationship with Mexico
Maduro is accused, among other things, of using his public positions “to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States” and corrupting Venezuelan institutions.
Between 2006 and 2008, when he was foreign minister, Maduro allegedly provided Venezuelan diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and provided diplomatic cover to planes used by money launderers to move drug profits from Mexico to Venezuela. Diplomatic coverage is special protection.
“Maduro facilitated the movement of private planes under diplomatic cover to ensure that the flights were not inspected by law enforcement or the military,” according to the indictment.
“On these occasions, Maduro would call the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico to report that a diplomatic mission would arrive on a private plane. Then, while the traffickers met with the Venezuelan ambassador in Mexico, their plane was loaded with drug proceeds. The plane then returned to Venezuela under diplomatic cover.”
The other defendants
The United States also accuses other Venezuelan officials and Maduro’s wife and son of collaborating with the criminal organizations Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa Cartel and the former Zetas. He also accuses them of working with the FARC and the ELN of Colombia.
“The defendants associated with drug traffickers and narcoterrorist groups that shipped processed cocaine from Venezuela to the United States,” the indictment reads.
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi)
January 3, 2026
All to traffic between 200 and 250 tons of cocaine each year through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Traffickers operating in these countries allegedly “paid a portion of their own profits (bribes) to politicians who protected and helped them.”
Speedboats, fishing boats and container ships left from Venezuela. In addition to air shipments from clandestine landing strips and “commercial airports under the control of corrupt government and military officials,” according to the indictment.
One of the designated shipments supposedly arrived at the Campeche airport in 2006. Mexican authorities seized more than 5.5 tons of cocaine and Venezuelan drug traffickers had to pay a bribe of 2.5 million dollars to Cabello Rondón, former Minister of the Interior of Venezuela, through a member of his family, so that they would not be arrested.
According to the indictment, between 2003 and 2011 the Zetas collaborated with a group of Colombian drug traffickers to transport cocaine from ports in Venezuela to ports in Mexico, and from there to the United States, protected by Venezuelan soldiers called “the generals.”
