Maduro and wife expected to face charges over Americans’ alleged torture

Federal prosecutors are expected to bring new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, alleging they played a role in the torture of Americans held in Venezuelan prisons, CBS News reported, citing multiple people familiar with the case.

More people could also be charged in connection with the alleged torture of more than a dozen Americans who were wrongfully detained by the Venezuelan government while Maduro was in power, according to CBS. One person familiar with the case said the charges could be announced as soon as Thursday. CNN first reported the prospect of new charges.

Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, told CBS he had received no notice that additional charges might be filed. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to CBS’s request for comment.

The potential charges would add to a federal case in New York in which Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges. Flores is due in federal court Thursday for a bond hearing. A trial for the couple has been tentatively scheduled for June 2027.

U.S. forces seized Maduro and Flores from their compound in Caracas during an overnight operation on Jan. 3 and brought them to New York to face prosecution, the BBC reported. A federal grand jury indicted the couple in January over what prosecutors described as a scheme to import “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States and enrich themselves, their family and senior Venezuelan officials, according to CBS.

Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess those weapons. Prosecutors have said he was at the “forefront of the corruption” and worked with drug traffickers and narco-terrorists to bring drugs into the United States.

The BBC reported that prosecutors also accused Maduro, Flores, Maduro’s son and others of partnering with cartels designated as terrorist groups. The accused “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” prosecutors said. Maduro has previously called the allegations a tool to advance U.S. “imperial” plans to gain access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, according to the BBC.

Maduro and 14 others were first indicted in the Southern District of New York in March 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term. Maduro and Flores have asked U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to dismiss the drug-trafficking indictment, arguing that Maduro is immune from prosecution as the leader of a sovereign country. Their lawyers also contend that the United States took him by force illegally, the BBC reported. The judge has not ruled on their requests.

In September, Alex Saab, a former minister in Maduro’s government, pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge tied to an alleged bribery conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, CBS reported. The outlet also reported in May that prosecutors in Miami had been ordered to open a separate investigation into Maduro amid concerns about the strength of the pending case.