Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, nephews of Maduro’s wife and legislative candidate Cilia Flores, have been flown out of Haiti to NY City to face charges that they negotiated with a DEA informant to sell cocaine in NY.
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A federal appeals court says a USA citizen detained in Yemen since 2010 on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida can’t get access to more documents about his arrest from the FBI or Central Intelligence Agency.
They were scheduled to be arraigned in a federal court in NY, according to a USA law enforcement official who insisted on anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the case, the AP reports.
One of their attorneys, John Reilly, told reporters that the defense will be studying whether they will request that bail be set. Both had Venezuelan diplomatic passports.
United States officials have arrested two relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking charges, furthering speculation around the involvement of Venezuela’s upper echelons of power in the drug trade.
Maduro and other senior officials have long said accusations of collusion with traffickers by the United States are part of an worldwide campaign to discredit socialism in Venezuela.
“Her influence over the president is clear, as well as the political respect Maduro has for her, beyond ideological questions or their marital relationship”, said Evans, who called Flores “the most powerful woman” in the Chavismo movement. Their arrest is only likely to add fuel to an ongoing investigations by US prosecutors into drug trafficking within Maduro’s administration, as well as within Venezuelan law enforcement. The indictment describes them participating in meetings in Venezuela in October regarding a shipment of cocaine that was to be sent to the United States.
As he frequently does, Maduro invoked his late predecessor and mentor, “our commander Hugo Chavez, our magnificent leader of all of humanity in this century”.
Mr Maduro, who was with his wife in Saudi Arabia for a summit when the news broke on Wednesday, made a veiled reference to the arrests on Twitter.
Flores, who Maduro calls the “First Combatant”, is one of the most influential members of Venezuela’s revolutionary government and a constant presence alongside her husband whenever he appears in public. The second man also identified himself as the first lady’s nephew. It’s unclear what Haitian agency, if any, performed the arrest, but the two suspected drug traffickers were quickly handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
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The DEA have built cases against high-ranking Venezuelan officials, and reportedly investigated the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, for cocaine trafficking and money laundering earlier this year.
