Maduro in NY 15 hrs after being taken, to be held at Brooklyn detention centre

The aircraft carrying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base, about 70 kilometres from New York City, around 5 pm eastern time on Saturday, roughly 15 hours after he was taken from Caracas.

After landing, Maduro was transferred under heavy security and is being prepared to be taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. According to US media reports, he will be produced before a federal court in Manhattan in connection with cases involving drug trafficking and arms smuggling.

Sources said that after landing at the air base, Maduro was flown by helicopter to the Westside Heliport in Manhattan. From there, he was to be taken to the headquarters of the US Drug Enforcement Administration to complete initial legal procedures. His next destination is expected to be the Brooklyn detention centre.

The Brooklyn facility is known for holding high-profile detainees. In the past, pop singer R Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and more recently rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs have been held there.

Video footage broadcast by US media showed FBI-uniformed officers standing at the aircraft door as Maduro disembarked. He was seen in New York around 15 hours after being taken from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

During Donald Trump’s first term, in 2020, the Southern District Court of New York filed charges against Maduro, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.

Earlier on Saturday morning, multiple explosions were heard in Caracas, and aircraft were seen flying at very low altitude. Maduro’s government had already accused the United States of carrying out attacks on civilian and military installations, describing them as ‘imperialist attacks’, and alleged attempts to remove the government from power.

Following the attacks, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in a statement that she would assume power according to the constitution as the whereabouts of President Maduro were unknown. She said they did not know the location of the president and his wife and demanded proof that they were alive.

Trump, in a social media post, claimed that Maduro and his wife had been detained and removed from the country. He said the operation was carried out jointly with US law enforcement agencies and was successful.