U.S. prosecutors are set to accuse Venezuela's former President, Nicolas Maduro, of selling diplomatic passports to Mexican cartels, which they would later use in cocaine smuggling operations, according to a new report.
Mexican outlet Reforma detailed that the alleged scheme took place between 2006 and 2008, when Maduro was Venezuela's foreign minister under president Hugo Chavez.
The accusation from the prosecutors working at the Southern District of New York goes on to argue that the Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels were the ones who accessed the documents.
"Maduro and his accomplices had an alliance with narco-terrorists from the Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels to distribute tons of cocaine in the U.S.," reads a passage of the accusation, according to Reforma.
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's current Interior Minister and a top ally of Maduro, is also mentioned in the document. He stands accused of taking bribes from Los Zetas to ensure the transport of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.
"The processed cocaine was sent from Venezuela to the U.S. through places in the Caribbean and Central America, including Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico," the document adds.
The document does not make accusations against Mexican politicians, but does note that cartels paid "part of their profits to politicians who protected and helped them."
Maduro is waiting for criminal processes against him to begin in a U.S. since being captured by U.S. forces during a raid in Caracas on January 3 along with his wife, Cilia Flores.
A superseding indictment unsealed on Jan. 3 accuses Maduro, his wife, and others of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, as well as weapons offenses involving machine guns and destructive devices. Prosecutors allege the charges underpin the Trump administration's decision to detain and transport Maduro to New York.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and retained prominent U.S. criminal defense lawyer Barry Pollack to lead his defense.
Pollack previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, overseeing his U.S. defense during years of extradition litigation and negotiations with federal prosecutors, a case that eventually concluded in 2024 with a plea agreement in which Assange admitted to a single Espionage Act-related offense and received a sentence of time served, ending a legal saga that began with his indictment during the first Trump administration.
Originally published on Latin Times
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