Scathing Indictment Claims Nicolás Maduro Orchestrated Drug-Fueled ‘Culture Of Corruption’ Which Plagued Entire Region
Ousted socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was the mastermind of a pervasive drug-fueled “culture of corruption” which extended all the way to the U.S.’s backyard, according to the scathing indictment against…
Ousted socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was the mastermind of a pervasive drug-fueled “culture of corruption” which extended all the way to the U.S.’s backyard, according to the scathing indictment against him, his wife, his son, and others, released Saturday.
Hours after President Donald Trump announced Maduro’s capture and removal from power, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the deposed despot and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York on four charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, and “will soon face the full wrath of American justice” on U.S. soil. A grand jury found Maduro “and corrupt members of his regime enabled corruption fueled by drug trafficking throughout” the Latin American region, including in Mexico and Central America, and empowered notorious crime syndicates such as Tren de Aragua (TdA), according to the unsealed indictment.
Signed by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, the 25-page indictment names six defendants, including the deposed Maduro, Flores, and Maduro’s 35-year-old son from his first marriage, Nicolás “Nicolasito” Maduro Guerra. It also names as defendants TdA leader Niño Guerrero and two high-profile members of Maduro’s United Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello Rondón and Ramón Rodríguez Chacín.
Maduro, “like former President Chávez before him participates in, perpetuates, and protects a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their partner drug traffickers,” the indictment alleges. “The profits of that illegal activity flow to corrupt rank-and-file civilian, military, and intelligence officials, who operate in a patronage system run by those at the top-referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a reference to the sun insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials.”