Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, a federal jail that has housed a number of high-profile defendants, including Luigi Mangione.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into U.S. custody from their home in Caracas and flown to New York, where federal prosecutors say they will face drug trafficking and weapons-related charges.
Maduro appeared in the Southern District of New York on Monday, Jan. 5, and pleaded not guilty. He is now detained at MDC while the case proceeds.
MDC has long faced scrutiny over alleged conditions inside the facility. In a June statement, the Legal Aid Society said the jail has a “documented history of violence, medical neglect, and human and civil rights violations.” The group cited reports from clients describing contaminated food, inadequate medical care — including alleged mishandled cancer diagnoses — and violence linked to chronic understaffing.
The jail has previously held other well-known inmates. Sean “Diddy” Combs was held at MDC at one point during his legal proceedings, and his attorney described conditions there as “horrific” in a pretrial letter to the court. Ghislaine Maxwell was also detained at MDC before her 2022 trial. Convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was held at the facility before being transferred in 2025.
Prosecutors say Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Flores is charged with cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Both denied wrongdoing at their arraignment.
“I am not guilty,” Maduro said in Spanish through an interpreter. “I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country.”
He also referred to himself as a “prisoner of war.”
