Inside infamous jail the place Maduro is held as he tells court docket: ‘I’m nonetheless president’
The jail where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is being held is so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there, but it has houses famous faces like R Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs
Defiant Nicolás Maduro denied drug trafficking charges during his first appearance at a New York court in which he declared: “I am still the president of my country.”
The seized Venezuelan leader, 63, told Judge Hellerstein he was “kidnapped” by the US as he and his wife appeared before the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse in Manhattan.
When asked to identify himself, Maduro said through an interpreter: “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
Maduro denied charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, telling the court: “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I’m a decent man, the president of my country.”
Maduro wore an orange overshirt and had his feet shackled as he faced a judge alongside his wife Cilia Flores. Footage showed him entering the court house in Lower Manhattan. Wife Cilia, 69, also pleaded not guilty, telling the judge she is “completely innocent”.
Towards the end of the arraignment hearing, a member of the public began to yell in Spanish at Maduro that he would “pay” for what he had done.
Maduro turned to him and replied in Spanish that he was a “kidnapped president” and a “prisoner of war” before he was escorted out in shackles behind his wife through the back court door. The member of the public, who was crying, was asked to leave court.
Maduro did not apply for bail during the brief hearing and will appear before the court again on March 17.
A group of protesters and counter protesters were gathered outside chanting to the beat of drums. One placard read: “USA Hands-off Venezuela.” Another said: “Thank You President Trump”.
After the hearing Maduro was deliberately paraded in front of live TV cameras as the couple were first driven in convoy to a heliport, where they were flanked by heavily armed police and federal agents as they were transferred onto a helicopter.
Maduro appeared to be limping slightly as he was made to bend over and bow his head whilst boarding the chopper back to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he and his wife are being held.
The prison is so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there and notorious inmates have been dubbed America’s “most unwanted”.
It has previously housed inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs as they awaited trial. It was also where sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried were held before their trials.
Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn as it also known, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.
It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.
Current detainees include the co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, and Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was held there during his trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US. Convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, Hernández was pardoned and freed by Donald Trump in December.
Hugo Carvajal, the former Venezuelan spy chief who broke ranks with Maduro in 2019 and has indicated that he wants to cooperate with U.S. authorities, is also a fellow inmate at the prison.
As is Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, an alleged member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang who was arrested last year in New York on firearms charges.
Zambrano-Pacheco was among those caught on security video terrorizing residents at an apartment complex in a Denver suburb, an incident that Trump seized on during his presidential campaign.
Located next to a shopping mall in a waterfront industrial area and within sight of the Statue of Liberty, the jail has been described, at its worst, as a “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy.”
Detainees and their lawyers have long complained about rampant violence. Two prisoners were killed by other inmates in 2024, and jail workers have been charged with accepting bribes or providing contraband.
During the winter of 2019, a power outage plunged the facility and its inmates into a cold darkness for a week. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says it has worked to improve conditions.
The facility added correctional and medical staff, remedying more than 700 backlogged maintenance requests and answering judges’ concerns. Improvements were also made to electrical and plumbing lines, food service and heating and air conditioning systems.
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