Trump increased the multimillion-dollar sum of money offered to anyone who facilitates Maduro's arrest and turned it into the highest amount in history, even surpassing that of Bin Laden
Already in 2020, Maduro had been formally indicted by a U.S. court, being charged with narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of military weaponry. However, now the Trump administration directly accuses him of running a narco-state whose armed and logistical wing is the Cartel of the Suns.
The Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, announced on Thursday a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
In March, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had already accused Maduro of being a key figure in the expansion of drug trafficking in Latin America and had put a price on his head: $25 million, a figure that not even the terrorist Bin Laden had ever had at the time.
For the United States, there is no doubt that "Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations such as Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly violence to our country," and that he is "one of the world's largest drug traffickers and a threat to our national security."
In a video posted on her social media, Bondi stated that, to date, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seized 30 metric tons (66,139 pounds) of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, who enrich themselves at the expense of the activities of the cartels operating in Venezuela and Mexico.
Bondi added that this cocaine is often mixed with fentanyl, a lethal drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans, and that the Trump administration has set as a goal to combat it.
The Secretary of State of the U.S. government, Marco Rubio, recalled a month ago that it had been a year since Maduro stole the presidential elections and that the dictator is a narco-terrorist at the head of an international criminal network.
According to Rubio, "Maduro is the leader of the organization designated as the narco-terrorist Cartel of the Suns, and he is responsible for drug trafficking to the United States and Europe," adding that the tyrant "has been indicted by our nation and has corrupted Venezuela's institutions to aid the cartel's criminal drug trafficking scheme toward the United States."
The senior Trump official also detailed how Maduro directly negotiated shipments of several metric tons (2,204 pounds per ton) of cocaine produced by the Colombian FARC, coordinated with drug traffickers in Honduras and other countries for the supply of drugs in other countries, and requested the help of the FARC to train a group that functioned as an armed unit of the Cartel of the Suns.
In addition to the criminal charges against him, the Trump administration is determined to bring Maduro to justice and for this reason seized his more than $700 million in assets.
While the Venezuelan people suffer from misery and poverty, Maduro lives like a king. Bondi confirmed that among the assets the United States seized from the dictator were two private jets and nine luxury vehicles.
