Nicolas Maduro, the dethroned Venezuelan dictator indicted on major drug trafficking and weapons charges in the United States, is expected in a federal court in New York Monday for his arraignment, days after American forces captured him in his own presidential palace.
The hearing, in which Maduro will be formally told the charges against him, is set for noon. His wife, Cilia Flores, was arrested in the raid and is also due in court. Like her husband, she was a high-level official in Venezuela's socialist regime.
Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
"For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States," federal prosecutors wrote in a superseding indictment unveiled over the weekend.
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