Trump administration is offering a $50 million reward fore information leading to the arrest of Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro

Attorney General Pam Bondi, Thursday accused Maduro of conspiring with multiple gangs to bring guns and illegal drugs into US

President Maduro, 62, has been under US scrutiny since March 2020, when he was indicted in the Southern District of New York on a slew of charges related to drug trafficking

Charges include narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine

US DEA has so far seized 30 tons of cocaine that were subsequently linked to Maduro and his associates – AG Bondi

US Attorney General Pam Bondi just announced a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro [photo]. DOJ indicted Maduro on drug and weapons related charges in March 2020

The Trump administration is now offering a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuelan president.
The bounty was announced by the US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who accused Maduro of conspiring with multiple gangs to bring guns and illegal drugs into the United States.
‘Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,’ Bondi said, adding that the US Drug Enforcement Administration to date has seized 30 tons of cocaine, subsequently linked to Maduro and his associates.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi, [photo], accused President Maduro of conspiring with multiple gangs to bring guns and illegal drugs into the United States

According to the attorney general, nearly seven tons of that seized narcotics was linked to Maduro himself.
The proceeds represents a primary source of income for gangs operating in Venezuela and Mexico: ‘Cocaine is often laced with fentanyl, resulting in the loss and destruction of countless American lives,’ Bondi said.
Maduro, 62, reportedly, has been in the crosshairs of the American justice system since March 2020, when he was indicted in the Southern District of New York on a slew of charges related to drug and weapons trafficking, listed as narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

In March 2020, retired Venezuelan army general, Cliver Alcalá-Cordones, [photo], accused of ‘helping Maduro smuggle illegal drugs into the US,’ was charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and associated firearms into the US 

The Venezuelan president has been accused of working Mexican drug cartels as well as El Salvador’s vicious Tren de Aragua gang. Members of Tren de Aragua [photo] are confined to the notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador known as CECOT

Venezuelan migrant gang member arrested by NYPD in New York is transported for processing

An alleged member of a Venezuelan gang is escorted off a plane by US soldiers where he’ll be taken to CECOT

Immediately after the indictment, the first Trump administration offered a $15 million reward for Maduro’s capture. The last US administration increased the bounty to $25 million.
On Thursday the Attorney General announced that figure is now doubled: ‘The DOJ has seized over $700 million of Maduro linked assets, including two private jets, nine vehicles and more. Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,’ Bondi said.
‘He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world, and a threat to our national security,’ she added.
She vowed that Maduro won’t escape justice under watch and that he ‘will be held accountable for his despicable crimes’.
Maduro has been the president of Venezuela since April 2013 and in that time, he has been accused of consolidating power in executive agencies while simultaneously emasculating the elected National Assembly.
Running for a a second term in 2018 presidential elections, his victory was disputed to the point that that his opponent, the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, was declared the true leader of Venezuela by anti-Maduro legislators.
When Guaidó was invited as a special guest to Trump’s State of the Union address in February 2020.
Democrats and Republicans alike cheered as Trump called him ‘the true and legitimate president of Venezuela’.
In 2024 he ran for a third term in a fraught election

President Donald Trump has long been scathing of the socialist and totalitarian government in Venezuela led by Nicolás Maduro

In 2024, Maduro ran for a third term as president. He was declared the winner in July by the Maduro aligned election authority, which did not release the voting tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths in the nation.
The opposition party, who ran Edmundo González as their candidate, also claimed victory.
Another opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, called the margin of victory for González was ‘overwhelming’ based on tallies received from 80 percent of ballot boxes nationwide.
Machado claimed González, a former diplomat, won with twice as many votes. 
In November 2024, then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, officially recognized González as the president-elect of Venezuela.
The Trump administration has held the same position, with current Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing Maduro election tampering last month.
‘One year since dictator Nicolás Maduro defied the will of the Venezuelan people by baselessly declaring himself the winner, the United States remains firm in its unwavering support to Venezuela’s restoration of democratic order and justice,’ he said.
‘Maduro is not the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government.’ 
Guaidó and González fled the country after both men had arrest warrants issued for them by Maduro’s government. 

US has not recognized the victory of Maduro [photo], in the hotly contested 2024 election. Maduro in contrast has long accused the US ’empire’ of political interference in the politics of his country with the ultimate aim of seizing control of the world’s largest oil reserves

That indictment of a functioning head of state five years ago was highly unusual, especially as it happened in the 15th month of a standoff between Maduro, who has the support of Russia and China, and the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
Furthermore the indictments exacerbated long running tensions between US and Venezuela at the peak of the global COVID19 pandemic. Hitting especially hard on a health system collapsing under the weight of the coronavirus management fiasco and an oil-dependent economy driven deep into the ground by years of corruption and US sanctions.
Maduro has long accused the US ’empire’ of looking for any excuse to take control of the world’s largest oil reserves, likening its plotting to the 1989 invasion of Panama and the removal of General Manuel Noriega to face drug trafficking charges in Florida.
Venezuela’s strongman whose earlier history includes working as a bus driver, portrays himself as an every man icon of the Latin American left. However, reality is that his leadership is considered by most as a dictatorship which has has only served to isolate and greatly impoverish the country.
Infact US justice officials see other parallels with Noriega who transformed Panama into a playground for violent, international drug cartels.
Trump over the course of two administrations has maintained that Maduro and his military henchmen harbored and aided drug traffickers, guerrillas from Colombia and terrorist groups including and Hezbollah and there has to be restitution.