The US has doubled its award for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50m (£37.2m) because it accuses him of working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.
On the time Maduro was indicted in Manhattan federal courtroom in 2020 on federal costs of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, the US supplied a $15m reward for his arrest.
Beneath US President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the supply went as much as $25m – the identical quantity the US supplied for the seize of Osama bin Laden following the 11 September 2001 assaults.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi stated Thursday in a video saying the brand new reward.
Ms Bondi stated the Justice Division has seized greater than $700m in belongings linked to Maduro, together with two non-public jets, and stated practically seven tonnes of seized cocaine had been traced on to the leftist chief.
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Venezuelan overseas minister Yvan Gil launched a press release characterising the reward as “pathetic” and accusing Ms Bondi of orchestrating a “crude political propaganda operation”.
“We’re not surprised, coming from whom it comes from.
“The identical one who promised a nonexistent ‘secret checklist’ of Epstein and who wallows in scandals for political favours,” Mr Gil said, referring to the backlash Ms Bondi faced after the Justice Department announced last month that a long-rumoured “consumer checklist” of convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein doesn’t exist.
“Her show is a joke, a desperate distraction from her own misery.”
