The US has accused the Venezuelan leader of working with cartels to flood the country with fentanyl-laced cocaine and being one of the biggest narco-traffickers in the world.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Maduro of working with Venezuelan crime syndicates Tren de Aragua, Cartel of the Suns, and the infamous Sinaloa Cartel in a video released on social media on Thursday that the “historic” increase in reward money was announced.
He poses a threat to our country’s security because he is one of the biggest narcotraffickers in the world. We increased his reward to $50 million, Bondi explained.
Before providing the public with a hotline phone number where they can report tips, she said, “Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice, and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes.”
Bondi added that the US Department of Justice had so far seized more than $700 million in Maduro-related assets, including nine private jets and nine vehicles, and that tonnes of cocaine had been directly linked to the president.
Today, @TheJusticeDept and @StateDept will reveal a $ 50 MILLION REWARD for information leading to Nicolás Maduro’s arrest. pic. twitter.com/D8LNqjS9yk
Bondi’s announcement was “the most ridiculous smokescreen ever seen,” according to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, who wrote a response to it on the Telegram platform.
“It comes from who it comes from, and it does not surprise us.” The minister said the same person who promised to keep Epstein’s “secret list” secret and who “wounds in scandals of political favors” with the same person.
“Her show is a joke, a desperate rehash of her own suffering,” she said. Our country’s reputation is not in question. He rebuffed this crude political propaganda tactic.
In 2020, Maduro, along with several close allies, was charged with federal drug trafficking in a US federal court.
The US offered a $ 15 million reward for his arrest at the time. The Biden administration later increased that figure to $25 million, the same sum that the US offered in exchange for Osama bin Laden’s capture following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
A former US military intelligence director admitted guilt to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges in June, a week before his trial was scheduled to start.
Hugo Carvajal, who served under President Hugo Chavez’s leadership from 2004 to 2004, admitted guilt on four criminal counts, including conspiracy to narco-terrorise and conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons.
The former major-general and other senior Venezuelan government and military officials were charged by US federal prosecutors with leading a drug cartel that attempted to “flood” the country with cocaine.
Before breaking with him to support Maduro’s country’s US-backed political opposition, Carvajal had previously worked as a diplomat for the country’s government. Following a more than ten-year campaign led by the Justice Department, he was extradited from Spain to the US in July 2023.
Despite receiving US benefits, Maduro continues to rule in place despite winning re-election to the presidency in 2024, a decision that was disregarded by Washington, the European Union, and a number of Latin American governments as a sham.
In exchange for Venezuela seeing the return home of dozens of deported by the US to El Salvador as a result of the Trump administration’s new immigration crackdown, the Trump administration reached a deal last month that secured the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Caracas.
Source: Aljazeera
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