The couple will be transferred from a Brooklyn detention center to a courthouse in Manhattan, located just steps away from where former U.S. President Donald Trump was found guilty in 2024 of falsifying business records.

In the U.S. legal system, Nicolás Maduro, as a criminal defendant, will be afforded the same rights as any other individual facing criminal charges, including the right to a jury trial composed of everyday New Yorkers. However, his case is almost — but not quite — one of a kind.

Maduro’s defense team is anticipated to challenge the legitimacy of his arrest, claiming that he should be granted immunity as a sitting head of state.

Previously, Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully attempted a similar defense after being captured by the U.S. during a military operation in 1990. However, the United States does not acknowledge Maduro as the rightful leader of Venezuela, especially after his highly contentious reelection in 2024.

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has called on the U.S. to return Maduro, who has consistently denied any drug trafficking involvement. Yet, on Sunday, she appeared more conciliatory in a social media message, expressing a willingness to collaborate with Trump and establish “respectful relations” with the United States.

Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed US hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.

Trump suggested on Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere.

He called on Venezuela’s Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.

A 25-page indictment made public on Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US. They could face life in prison if convicted.

It wasn’t clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a US lawyer yet.

He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under US sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a licence from the Treasury Department.

While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a US intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.

Maduro, his wife and his son — who remains free — are charged along with Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.

Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss’ killing in Caracas, the indictment said.

Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.