Judge Sets Trial Date for Former President of Venezuela

Articles | July 22, 2026 | by Catholics for Catholics

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The ousted former strongman of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, will go on trial June 1, 2027, as they dispute drug trafficking charges.

By Catholics for Catholics

The toppled former president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, will go on trial June 1, 2027, as they dispute drug trafficking charges, a federal judge announced at a July 22 court hearing in New York City.

The former strongman of Venezuela is facing charges that he aided others in transporting thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States as part of a narco-terrorism conspiracy, and that he also perpetrated other drug- and gun-related crimes, according to a story by Newsmax. Special U.S. military forces extracted him from Venezuela in early January and brought him to New York to answer the charges. If convicted, Maduro could be incarcerated for decades.

At the request of the lawyers from both sides, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the June 1 trial date. On that schedule, defense lawyers will begin filing requests in early September to challenge the indictment and the couple will return to the courtroom Nov. 17 for oral arguments on the motions.

BREAKING: Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, are due in a Manhattan courtroom within the hour for the next step in their high profile criminal hearings.

Maduro faces four criminal counts after U.S. forces seized him in Caracas during a January… pic.twitter.com/IzPekyfQuB

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 22, 2026

The former president, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces captured them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.

During Wednesday’s 15-minute hearing, neither spoke as each sat separately at a defense table, surrounded by their lawyers. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.

As he was led into the courtroom, the bespectacled Maduro greeted the judge’s staff and shook hands with lawyers for him and his wife. Noticeably thinner in a tan jail suit and with his thick mustache, he seemed upbeat, smiling and chatting with his lawyer.