BREAKING: Nicolas Maduro ‘Perp Walked’ By Large Contingent Of U.S. Forces In New York

A large contingent of U.S. special forces and federal law enforcement personnel were seen escorting deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro after his plane touched down at Stewart International Airport in New York.

The flight was seen touching down at the Stewart International Airport just south of Poughkeepsie, which houses a military airfield, shortly after 4:30 p.m. The arrival came just over 12 hours after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a daring special forces raid.

A shackled Maduro was seen exiting the plane just before 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. After getting off the ramp, he was escorted inside a military facility by a large contingent of federal agents and military personnel.

President Donald Trump had previously uploaded an image of a blindfolded Maduro as he was being transported aboard the USS Iwo Jima. U.S. forces managed to extract Maduro and escort him to the vessel without sustaining any fatalities or downed aircraft.

Charges against Maduro were first unsealed during President Trump’s first term in 2020, when the Justice Department unsealed indictments in the Southern District of New York against the dictator and dozens of his high-level associates. All were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons.

Prosecutors have alleged that Maduro led the “Cartel de los Soles,” a loose network of corrupt Venezuelan military and political elites that facilitated massive cocaine trafficking since at least 1999, partnering with Colombian militant groups like FARC and ELN, Mexican cartels such as Sinaloa and Zetas, and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) to flood the U.S. with drugs.

This corruption allegedly enriched Maduro’s inner circle, with Venezuela serving as a key transit hub for South American cocaine, often laced with fentanyl, resulting in U.S. seizures of 30 tons linked to the regime, including nearly 7 tons tied directly to Maduro. The U.S. designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025 and Cartel de los Soles in November 2025, accusing the regime of material support for these groups’ narco-trafficking and violence.

A superseding indictment unsealed on Saturday, following Maduro’s capture in a U.S. military raid, expanded the charges to include his wife, Cilia Flores, and son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra. Flores faces cocaine importation conspiracy charges for allegedly aiding trafficking through state-sponsored “colectivos” gangs, while the son is implicated in regime corruption.

“We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind,” President Trump said during a press conference at Mar-A-Lago on Saturday. He added that the U.S. will be assisting with revitalizing Venezuela’s oil industry to the benefit of the people of Venezuela, and the United States.