Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro bid law enforcement officers a ‘Happy New Year’ as he was perp walked following his capture on Saturday.
The South American dictator appeared relaxed as he was escorted through Manhattan’s Drug Enforcement Administration office.
US Army Delta Force soldiers snatched Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their Caracas compound Friday night before extraditing them on drug trafficking charges.
They landed by helicopter in Manhattan on Saturday evening, after earlier making stops at airfields in upstate New York and Puerto Rico.
Maduro and Flores are now in custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, which is famous for its squalid conditions and has also housed Luigi Mangione and Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs.
Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely in the meantime, after dismissing the prospect of the country’s popular opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, taking the reins, claiming she ‘does not have the support’.
Cameras captured the moment Maduro and Flores touched down in a white FBI Boeing 757 at Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate New York around 4:30pm Saturday.
Several figures presumed to be Maduro and his wife flanked by officials could be seen slowly leaving the aircraft before they were taken by helicopter to NYC.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been seen perp walking down a hallway in an official building in Manhattan, almost 24 hours after he was seized by US troops, as shown above
Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has arrived in the US after being seized from his Caracas compound. Several figures presumed to be Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores flanked by officials could be seen disembarking the plane in upstate NY, as shown above
A plane carrying captured Venezuelan Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro is pictured after landing at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York on Saturday evening
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is pictured after his capture in a photo shared by President Donald Trump on his TruthSocial website
The footage is unclear due to the darkness, but Maduro appeared to be wearing handcuffs as he was marched across the runway to the next aircraft.
It is believed the couple were first taken to Puerto Rico, where another video showed them being escorted onto a different US military plane earlier in the day.
Shot from several hundred yards away, the footage shared by Puerto Rican broadcaster NotiCentro follows a huddle of people boarding a plane on the runway at Ramey Base, a former US Air Force strip at Rafael Hernandez International Airport.
The mayor of Aguadilla, Julio Roldan, also wrote on social media that the Venezuelan dictator had been ‘transferred’ through the city, which is located on the north-western coast of Puerto Rico, around 600 miles north of Caracas.
‘Aguadilla was the first American jurisdiction where they transferred the detainee Nicolás Maduro,’ Roldan said Saturday.
‘An additional sample of geopolitical value Aguadilla has for our common defense.’
After his capture by the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit, Maduro and his wife were flown by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima warship.
Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely in the meantime.
‘We’re going to run the country until as such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,’ he told reporters in the wake of the shock capture.
New video appears to show Nicolás Maduro and his wife being frog-marched onto a military plane at a Puerto Rican air base as part of their extradition to the US. Shot from several hundred yards away, the video shows a huddle of people boarding the aircraft, as shown above
As the shock abduction ordered by Donald Trump sends shockwaves around the world, Puerto Rican broadcaster NotiCentro has shared video allegedly showing Maduro and Flores being escorted onto a US military plane in Aguadilla. A still from the footage is shown above
Trump offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30 million, but suggested the country’s vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival.
Maduro’s arrest came after US forces struck Caracas amid accusations from Trump that Venezuela has been flooding the US with drugs and gang members.
Trump alleged that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) drug trafficking operation.
Trump said Saturday that he had not briefed Congress of his plans to snatch Maduro, claiming that had he done so, the news would have ‘leaked’ and potentially helped the Venezuelan leader to evade capture.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has been tipped as the country’s next president, but Trump made no mention of her on Saturday.
She previously voiced support for Trump’s threats to get rid of Maduro and is hugely popular among the Venezuelan electorate.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia were both seized by a US military unit in the early hours of Caracas. Trump said Saturday afternoon that both will face criminal charges in New York City
Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has been tipped to be the next president of Venezuela
Maduro’s capture sparked jubilation from Venezuelan migrants living outside of their home nation Saturday.
Hundreds took to the streets of cities, including Santiago in Chile, to celebrate the ouster of a leader seen as a corrupt authoritarian accused of destroying the economy of his oil-rich country while silencing dissent.
The atmosphere appeared altogether more muted in Caracas.
Locals were photographed lining up outside supermarkets amid fears Maduro’s ouster will lead to even greater economic uncertainty.
Shortly before Saturday’s press conference, the president shared an undignified photo of Maduro in a tracksuit taken after his capture.
He said the Venezuelan president’s wife will also be charged, but did not offer further details.
Maduro was photographed wearing a heavy black plastic eye mask and ear muffs over his ears in an apparent bid to keep his location a secret from him.
He was clad in a gray tracksuit and clutched a plastic water bottle. It is unclear if this is what Maduro was wearing when he was taken or if it was given to him by US forces.
An explosion rocks Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning during the United States raid that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia
Venezuelans living in Chile celebrate the capture of President Nicolas Maduro in Santiago on Saturday
Venezuelans are photographed lining up outside a supermarket on Saturday morning after the country’s president Nicolas Maduro was captured by the US
The image was a far cry from his usual appearance in sharp suits or military regalia, with CNN commentators speculating it had been chosen to humiliate the corrupt leader.
There was no sign of Cilia.
Addressing a press conference in Mar-a-Lago Saturday, Trump told journalists that the Venezuelan first lady was part of her husband’s alleged schemes and that she too will face criminal charges in Manhattan.
‘Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice,’ Trump declared.
The Maduros are said to have been frightened of capture by US forces and allegedly took to sleeping in a different place every night.
Their whereabouts was being monitored successfully by CIA spies, with Trump green-lighting the operation to snatch them on Thursday.
Earlier on Saturday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Maduro would face drug and weapons trafficking charges originally filed in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office.
Five other Venezuelan officials face the same charges. But the first lady is not among those names and it remains unclear what charges she will face.
Speaking while flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump said the operation to capture Maduro was one of the most daring in military history.
Shortly after 2am Venezuela time Saturday morning, Delta Force soldiers burst into the Maduros bedroom and captured them.
A source told the network the operation – which struck five Venezuelan sites including three in the country’s capital Caracas – did not result in any casualties.
A destroyed anti-aircraft unit is seen burned out next to a destroyed bus at La Carlotta military air base in Caracas hours after Friday’s US operation in Venezuela that saw the country’s president and first lady seized by US special forces
Trump updates Americans on his capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday afternoon, flanked by White House cabinet members including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
He hailed the operation as ‘brilliant’ in a brief New York Times interview early Saturday.
The president later called into Fox News‘s breakfast show Fox & Friends, excitedly telling its hosts: ‘I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence – it was an amazing thing.’
Explosions were seen ripping across Caracas during the daring raid, with Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab insisting that ‘innocents’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the US operation.
Venezuela has yet to share further details on whether any of its soldiers or citizens were injured or killed during the raid.