Noman Sabit: About 15 hours after being taken into custody, an aircraft carrying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base, located roughly 70 kilometers from New York City.
The plane touched down at the base at around 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.
Under heavy security, Maduro is being transferred to a detention facility in Brooklyn—the Metropolitan Detention Center. According to U.S. media reports, he will be produced from there before a federal court in Manhattan in connection with cases involving allegations of drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.
Sources said that after landing at the New York-area air base on Saturday afternoon, Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan’s Westside Heliport. From there, he was to be taken to the headquarters of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (Drug Enforcement Administration) to complete initial legal formalities. His next destination is expected to be the Brooklyn detention center.
The New York facility is notorious for housing high-profile detainees. In the past, it has held pop singer R. Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell—an associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—and more recently, rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Video footage broadcast by U.S. media showed officers in uniform from the Federal Bureau of Investigation standing at the aircraft door as Maduro disembarked. He was seen in New York roughly 15 hours after being “picked up” from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
During former President Donald Trump’s first term, in 2020, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York with conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and related offenses.
Early Saturday morning, multiple explosions were reportedly heard in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and aircraft were seen flying at very low altitude. The Maduro government had earlier accused the United States of carrying out attacks on civilian and military installations, describing them as “imperialist attacks,” and alleged attempts to forcibly remove the government from power.
Following the attacks, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in a statement that, under the law, she would assume authority as the whereabouts of President Maduro were unknown. She said the government did not know the location of the president or his wife and demanded proof that they were alive.
In a post, Trump said, “Maduro, along with his wife, has been detained and removed from the country. The operation was carried out jointly with U.S. law enforcement agencies, and it was successful.”
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BP/SM
