{"id":23546,"date":"2026-07-22T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/june-1-trial-date-set-for-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-in-his-us-drug-trafficking-case\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:19:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:19:45","slug":"june-1-trial-date-set-for-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-in-his-us-drug-trafficking-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/june-1-trial-date-set-for-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-in-his-us-drug-trafficking-case\/","title":{"rendered":"June 1 trial date set for Venezuela&#8217;s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in his US drug trafficking case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"storyParagraphFigure\" readability=\"36\">\n<p class=\"content\">NEW YORK &mdash; Former Venezuelan president Nicol&aacute;s Maduro and his wife will go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched them from power.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"artImage leadImage\">\n<div class=\" \"><picture class=\"leadImageClass\"><source media=\"(min-width:768px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/ht-img\/img\/2025\/12\/30\/550x309\/US_News_1767090888271_1767090921295.png\" alt=\"June 1 trial date set for Venezuela's Nicol&aacute;s Maduro in his US drug trafficking case\"><\/source><\/picture><\/div><figcaption class>June 1 trial date set for Venezuela&rsquo;s Nicol&aacute;s Maduro in his US drug trafficking case<span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"content \">Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the June 1 trial date at the request of lawyers on both sides. Under the approved schedule, defense lawyers will begin filing requests in early September to challenge the indictment and the couple will return to the courtroom Nov. 17 for oral arguments on the motions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Neither spoke during Wednesday&rsquo;s 15-minute hearing as each sat separately at a defense table, surrounded by their lawyers. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">As he was led into the courtroom, the bespectacled Maduro greeted the judge&rsquo;s staff and shook hands with lawyers for him and his wife. Noticeably thinner in a tan jail suit and with his thick mustache, he seemed upbeat, smiling and chatting with his lawyer. He listened to a Spanish interpretation of the proceeding through headphones and clasped his hands in front of him in a prayerlike gesture. He had a black pen wedged in his right fingers and sporadically jotted notes on a white pad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">As deputy U.S. marshals led him out, he waved to someone in the gallery.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p class=\"content \">President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a &ldquo;surgical law enforcement operation&rdquo; in a criminal case first brought six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">&ldquo;I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,&rdquo; he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Maduro&rsquo;s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said he expects to contest the legality of Maduro&rsquo;s &ldquo;military abduction.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">During Wednesday&rsquo;s hearing, Pollack said he will first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because if that is successful, Maduro won&rsquo;t have to continue litigating the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">The lawyers have said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before a trial can begin.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p class=\"content \">Maduro and Flores have not asked to be released on bail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \"><strong>This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub><\/sub><\/p>\n<div>June 1 trial date set for Venezuela&rsquo;s Nicol&aacute;s Maduro in his US drug trafficking case<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK &mdash; Former Venezuelan president Nicol&aacute;s Maduro and his wife will go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched them from power. June 1 trial date set for Venezuela&rsquo;s Nicol&aacute;s Maduro in his US drug trafficking&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/june-1-trial-date-set-for-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-in-his-us-drug-trafficking-case\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;June 1 trial date set for Venezuela&#8217;s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in his US drug trafficking case&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}