NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Former Venezuelan president Nicol谩s Maduro and his wife will go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched them from power.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the June 1 trial date at the request of lawyers on both sides. Under the approved 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.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.
Neither spoke during Wednesday鈥檚 15-minute hearing 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鈥檚 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. He listened to a Spanish interpretation of the proceeding through headphones and clasped his hands in front of him in a prayerlike gesture. He had a black pen wedged in his right fingers and sporadically jotted notes on a white pad.
As deputy U.S. marshals led him out, he waved to someone in the gallery.
President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration has to capture Maduro as a 鈥渟urgical law enforcement operation鈥� in a criminal case six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.
U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.
鈥淚 am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,鈥� he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.
Maduro鈥檚 lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said he expects to contest the legality of Maduro鈥檚 鈥渕ilitary abduction.鈥�
During Wednesday’s hearing, Pollack said he will first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because if that is successful, Maduro won’t have to continue litigating the case.
The lawyers have said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before a trial can begin.
Maduro and Flores have not asked to be released on bail.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
