The Trump administration has announced a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a sitting head of state accused by U.S. authorities of running an international drug trafficking operation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi made the announcement Thursday, stating that Maduro has been conspiring with multiple gangs and foreign terrorist organizations to traffic guns and illegal drugs into the United States.
“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Bondi said during a press conference.
Bondi said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seized 30 tons of cocaine connected to Maduro and his associates.
Nearly seven tons of that amount, she said, have been directly tied to Maduro himself.
The drug trade is a primary source of funding for gangs operating in Venezuela and Mexico, according to Bondi.
She warned that the illicit drugs entering the United States from these networks are often mixed with dangerous additives.
“Cocaine is often laced with fentanyl, resulting in the loss and destruction of countless American lives,” Bondi said.
Maduro, 62, has been facing U.S. criminal charges since March 2020.
At that time, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York indicted him on multiple offenses, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Immediately after the 2020 indictment, the first Trump administration offered a $15 million reward for Maduro’s capture.
The Biden administration later increased the amount to $25 million.
With Bondi’s announcement, the U.S. bounty has now doubled again to $50 million — the highest reward the federal government has ever offered for the capture of a sitting foreign leader, per the Daily Mail.
Bondi also reported that the Department of Justice has seized more than $700 million in assets linked to Maduro.
These included two private jets, nine vehicles, and other property holdings. “Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,” she said.
Bondi described Maduro as “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world, and a threat to our national security.”
She pledged that the Trump administration would not relent in pursuing him. “He will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Bondi said.
Maduro, who is widely considered a “dictator,” has been the president of Venezuela since April 2013, following the death of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
During his time in office, critics have accused him of consolidating power in the executive branch while weakening the authority of the National Assembly, Venezuela’s democratically elected legislative body.
His 2018 presidential election win was widely disputed, the Daily Mail noted.
Allegations of voter fraud and suppression led anti-Maduro lawmakers to recognize Juan Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly, as the country’s rightful leader.
The outlet further noted that in February 2020, Guaidó attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as a special guest.
During the speech, Trump called him “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela,” a declaration met with bipartisan applause in the chamber.
In 2024, Maduro sought a third term in office. Venezuela’s election authority, which is aligned with him, declared him the winner in July.
The body did not release the individual voting tallies from the nation’s 30,000 polling stations.
Opposition candidate Edmundo González also claimed victory, saying the results were fraudulent.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the opposition’s own vote counts from 80 percent of ballot boxes showed González had won by a significant margin.
She claimed he received twice as many votes as Maduro.
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Author: Jordyn M.
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