"Nicolas Maduro is being held in a New York City jail notorious for its high-profile inmates and dangerous conditions. The Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by the U.S. military overnight Saturday and flown to the U.S., where they face federal criminal charges related to alleged drug trafficking and weapons. They are now awaiting trial in New York from the confines of Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC, a federal jail in Brooklyn with a scandal-plagued history."
"Other previous residents include Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, singer R. Kelly, crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Its previous roster also includes other world leaders. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was detained at MDC after his extradition and arrest on drug trafficking and firearms charges in 2022. Ironically, Trump pardoned him in December 2025 even as he ramped up pressure on Maduro."
"Before disgraced rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs spent time in MDC, his lawyers unsuccessfully lobbied the judge in his case to keep him out of jail in part because of the dire conditions there. They wrote in a letter that several district courts had already recognized MDC is "not fit for pre-trial detention," quoting previous cases that described overcrowding, staffing issues, food contamination, hazardous physical conditions and violence at the facility."
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by the U.S. military and transported to the United States to face federal charges alleging drug trafficking and weapons offenses. They are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn pending trial. MDC has housed numerous high-profile detainees, including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Michael Cohen, Martin Shkreli, R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried and Ghislaine Maxwell, and previously detained Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The facility has faced overcrowding, violence, medical neglect and inmate deaths. Several judges have refused to send defendants there, and defense lawyers have argued the jail is "not fit for pre-trial detention."
Read at www.npr.org
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