US Offers $50M for Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro’s Arrest

The Trump administration is doubling its reward to 50 million US dollars (£37.2 million) for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The US is accusing Maduro of running one of the world’s largest drug trafficking operations.

“Today the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] has seized 30 tonnes of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates,” said the American Attorney General in a statement on X. “Which represents a primary source of income for the deadly cartels based in Venezuela and Mexico.”

Bondi accused Maduro of working with cartels to ‘flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine’ and vowed he “will not escape justice” under the Trump administration.

Maduro was first indicted in Manhattan in 2020 during Donald Trump’s first term, charged with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. The initial 15 million dollar reward was later increased to 25 million under Joe Biden.

Bondi called Maduro the “largest narcotrafficker in the world and a threat to the US’s national security.”

Venezuela’s foreign minister, Yvan Gil, dismissed the reward as “pathetic” and “political propaganda,” and accused Bondi of staging a “desperate distraction.”

Maduro, who returned to office in January in an election widely condemned as fraudulent, has faced repeated allegations of repression, corruption, and collusion with groups such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Despite international sanctions and diplomatic pressure, he remains in power, continuing to reject US claims of direct involvement in drug trafficking.