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Trump: U.S. Will "Run" Venezuela After Capturing Maduro; Venezuela's Maduro Arrives In NY After Captured By U.S. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 03, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: And good evening, I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York, and this is CNN's breaking news coverage.
Because as we come on the air tonight, the ousted Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife are currently in U.S. custody here in New York. President Trump declared that his administration will now run Venezuela, but without offering many details or a timeline for how long the United States will be in charge of a Latin American country with nearly 34 million people.
U.S. forces captured Maduro in an overnight operation that lit up the skies of Caracas. That ultimately led to this remarkable scene this evening that has just played out in the streets of New York. Maduro being escorted through New York City in U.S. police custody. This is all coming, I should note, less than two months after CNN reported that members of the Trump administration had told Congress they didn't have the legal justification to strike Venezuela, as we are now tonight monitoring reaction from lawmakers in both parties.
Two sources tell CNN that Maduro, pictured here in U.S. custody aboard the USS Iwo Jima, and his wife were dragged from their bedroom in the middle of the night as President Trump and his national security team monitored the mission from his Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida.
For more than a decade, of course, the president has wanted Maduro removed from power. And now, as early as Monday, the former Venezuelan leader and his wife could face a U.S. judge on drug and weapons charges here in New York.
President Trump, whose political rise was built on promises to avoid regime change and end the practice of nation building that he criticized his predecessors for, laid out this plan for Venezuela earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So, we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious, because that's what we're all about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: There are major questions about what's next for the U.S. policy here. But first, on what's happening with Maduro right now, CNN's Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is joining me from the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, where he's expected to be held.
And, Evan, I think that's the question, is where is Maduro right now, and what do we expect this process to look like over the next few hours?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Kaitlan, he is still being processed in Manhattan. We know that the DEA was working to do that. Now, there's a -- he landed, as you saw earlier, just in the past hour, you saw he landed at the heliport there on the west side of Manhattan.
There was a process that they were going to take essentially his mugshot and get him processed in --you know, to begin the process for him to face these charges that have been unsealed today against him and his wife. There's a total of five people who were named on this indictment that the Justice Department made public today, including, of course, Nicolas Maduro's wife, and along with a current and a former interior minister, as well as the head of the Tren de Aragua gang, all of whom, according to prosecutors, are involved in drug trafficking.
The charges that, right now, Nicolas Maduro is facing include narco- terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns -- again, this is gun trafficking essentially. Those are among the charges that he's facing. And this is a process now that will begin here. We expect that he's going to arrive here at the Metropolitan Detention Facility in Brooklyn in perhaps the next hour or so.
Already, what we've begun seeing just -- just to the right of me, where I'm standing, here in the Brooklyn waterfront, members of the Venezuelan community here in New York have started gathering. You can hear, from time to time, them shouting and yelling. They have Venezuelan flags that they're showing. There are people who are passing by, beeping their horns on their cars.
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We've also seen DEA and FBI arrive here to begin the process to secure his arrival. So, again, all of that we expect to -- to unfold here in the coming hours.
And then, of course, we expect that he's going to make his first court appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Monday morning, as soon as Monday morning, that is. And then the process will begin, and we'll see how those charges stand up.
Now, he is the leader of a foreign country. So, one of the things we expect he's going to do is he's going to argue that he should be treated differently. He's going to argue that these charges are not legitimate, that he deserves immunity. All of those things are going to take months for them to be worked out. But for the meantime, in the meantime, he will be held here at this facility.
One of the things that I think is notable, Kaitlan, something that you've been covering over the last few months, three weeks, rather, is that Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, this is the facility where he was held. He was serving 45 years in prison for pretty much the same charges that Nicolas Maduro is now facing. Of course, the president gave him a pardon several weeks ago. And so now this is where Maduro will be taking his place in this facility.
Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yeah. And he was spotted in the streets of New York just a couple of days ago.
Evan Perez, keep us updated on what you're seeing. Obviously, those Venezuelan nationals who are also there as well. We'll check back in with you throughout the hour as there's a lot of updates happening and changes.
Also, our correspondent Omar Jimenez is with us now. Omar, you were there earlier as the helicopters transporting Maduro had landed on the West Side Highway. What have you been seeing since that?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, after that motorcade initially left here and went for processing, we are now watching a lot of rebuilding of law enforcement presence. We just had three helicopters land back at this heliport, which is significant because when Maduro and his wife first arrived here, they were transported by helicopter. We then, when that motorcade left, we then saw helicopters take back off again.
These helicopters are now back here. The roads on the West Side Highway here in Manhattan are now closed off once again. So, it appears that they're preparing for another leg of transport here, presumably to what would be a detention center here in the New York City area.
But I -- when we saw -- what we saw earlier was really a very gradual buildup of law enforcement presence. We've been here since really the early afternoon at this point, and it started with just a few law enforcement officers. We could tell that when we were hearing that maybe this might be the place, there was just enough law enforcement to make us think, OK, we feel OK.
Now, this seems to be at least one bit of a motorcade coming through here. There's an armored vehicle. Previously, Maduro was in a white van, we believe to be. And you see that white van just behind this armored vehicle as they're making their way down up the West Side Highway here, northbound, back towards this heliport area. We're looking to see if we can see anything inside the windows. No, just federal agents, it appears, as they take this white van back toward this heliport area.
Now, earlier, they had this white van backed up right against the gate that allows you to actually get to the helipad itself. So, you see it sort of stopped at this intersection here. It'll be interesting to see if they back it in to see if they use that same method. It really blocked our ability to get visual confirmation in seeing Maduro and his wife actually step onto the van itself.
So, we're watching this as it goes in. You see this as part of its motorcade. You got these vehicles also coming in behind it as well. This has really been what we have seen over the course of the afternoon as our photographer is adjusting here. You see that white van pulling in to Venezuela (technical difficulty) earlier in the day as it pulls in, and we're watching for it as police are sort of directing traffic here of the motorcade itself.
And you see it now backing up toward the entrance where that heliport is, or at least trying to adjust itself. But this is a motorcade that just came in so quickly. The law enforcement presence, you see a lot here in New York City, but this level of law enforcement is still pretty remarkable on a night like this. We're seeing the door open at least on one side of that white van on the passenger side. As we're keeping an eye on this, NYPD vehicles moving behind. You see the barricades going back in place. Those were --
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Yeah, Kaitlan, go ahead.
COLLINS: We can see the DEA agents inside the car. Obviously, that's -- they've been surrounded by dozens of people this entire time.
Omar, we also are seeing a helicopter shot on the right side of where your shot is showing from above the aerial view of these agents around there.
I mean, it's also remarkable to think about where he is ultimately going. In New York, where we do believe they'll be separated, is the same facility that held Diddy and Luigi Mangione and Ghislaine Maxwell for a time being. And now is where we expect Maduro to ultimately end up before he is in court.
I should note, you can see them escorting a figure here who looks to be wearing all black as we're watching this play out.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, you know, it's pretty difficult to see even from the ground here. There's so many flashing lights, but the one thing that does stick out is you have that white van just seemingly holding in place. And what's also remarkable, and just the names that you listed out, Kaitlan, I mean, the law enforcement presence here, they know what they're doing, and they're very methodical in how they've moved and blocked city streets and transported, in this case, a very, very high-profile personnel in Maduro and his wife here.
Right now --
COLLINS: What we're seeing from this aerial footage --
JIMENEZ: Yeah, go ahead.
COLLINS: -- because what we can see from above is it looks to be a hooded figure being slowly escorted by about five or six agents to a helicopter. Now, they walked quite slowly across the -- across the helipad there, and then now you're seeing someone, it's not clear if it's actually Maduro himself, but it seems to be being loaded into this helicopter now. Do we know what he's been doing, Omar?
JIMENEZ: And that would explain the helicopters coming back here, yes. To this point, when he initially arrived in the helicopters and was taken by motorcade to -- as we understand -- a DEA building or a federal law enforcement building for processing, so that would be just things like fingerprints, things that really weren't there that long, all things considered. It was much longer of a delay and a pause when -- for those that had been following when Maduro was at the base north of New York City.
There was -- they spent much more time on the ground there than they did here in New York City. All things -- all told, it's been just about an hour or so since they first arrived here in New York City, went through the motorcade to that federal building, did, as we understand, some form of processing there, came back to this helicopters now, and where we expect them to go moving forward would be to that Metro detention center here in New York City.
So, this latter process, with all of the law enforcement and all of the movements and likely all the planning and preparation that it took to actually pull this off successfully and efficiently, for all of that, it has seemed to move pretty quickly here on the ground in New York City.
Obviously there's this next phase, but pretty remarkable to just shut down both sides of this, to move the way that they did. The office is not too far from where -- from where we are, so it's a little bit of a short commute in terms of being on the ground and on the -- and as part of the motorcade itself. But police never stopped blocking at least portions of this road off, and there was always a police presence here, pretty heavy, even after this motorcade took off.
So, it gave us the impression that they were not quite done with this area, and we're hearing the helicopters start to fire up again, which you probably have a view from the aerials as well. That has been the primary mode of transportation that we've seen them use for a good portion of the New York area, again starting from north of New York City to this point, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Well, and it's just remarkable to see, you know, 24 hours ago, Nicolas Maduro was at home with his wife, and now here they are at 8:13 p.m. in New York, being loaded again into these helicopters.
John Miller is also here, our Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst. John, can you just kind of tell us what you think, one that we're seeing right now, if he's about to be loaded, or he's now back on this helicopter, and what's been happening behind the scenes? What's been happening with these DEA agents who are escorting him back and forth?
John Miller, we'll check back in with you. He's working on reporting here and has been excellent at keeping us updated on what's been happening behind the scenes.
Omar, there's two helicopters that we can see here from our vantage point. This is along the West Side Highway, where, you know, if you live in New York City, typically helicopters are going in and out and landing in this spot. Not normally would someone, an ousted Venezuelan leader, who was on board those helicopters before making his way over to where he's expected to be held shortly.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, it's pretty remarkable as we're seeing the helicopter, at least one of them, take off right now. You know, when we were watching for these helicopters coming in earlier, what we were really trying to do was, as we saw the aerial feeds at the -- at the base north of New York City, we saw three helicopters take off, and based on the timing it would take to get from there to here, that's how we were sort of monitoring when these helicopters would land.
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And now we actually see them starting to take off. One took off already. Now a second one taking off here. Notably, as you're noticing on camera (technical difficulty) law enforcement does (technical difficulty) helicopter has taken off. It's unclear at this point which one he was on, at least from my vantage point. You may have a better one from the air there, Kaitlan.
And then now a third helicopter is taking off. Those are the three that we saw re-land here after leaving with that initial drop at this point, and after what was really hours of travel to get to this point from the Caribbean all the way to north of New York City by plane, and then here -- then from north of New York City to here by helicopter, by vehicle, to then get processed, then back to this helicopter, and then to what we understand to be a metro detention facility here in the New York City area.
It's just a remarkable turn of events. As you mentioned, a remarkable change in just 24 hours in the lives of Maduro, but also for the country of Venezuela and the region as a whole, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yeah, and to see him now flying over the Hudson River as we believe these two helicopters that we are watching here are carrying Nicolas Maduro now that he's arrived in New York.
John Miller is with me. John Miller, can we just talk about what's been happening behind the scenes? Obviously, we're seeing what Omar is saying and what we can see from these helicopters, this aerial view. What's been happening behind the scenes with the ousted Venezuelan leader?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, after being processed at the DEA's New York office, fingerprinted and booked, he and his wife presumably are on board these helicopters. They are headed to the Metropolitan Detention Center. What's been going on behind the scenes is to keep this coordinated, to try and keep these locations basically secured during each of the moves.
And when he arrives where he's going, he's going to be landing in not a regular heliport. It's going to be a non-public landing zone, which is not far from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where they have already pre-positioned all the security to receive him. Then he'll be coming around to where Evan Perez is.
And that is where he is -- where his wife is, going to be spending the night, where they're going to be likely spending all day Sunday before they make an initial appearance before either a U.S. magistrate or a federal judge in a Manhattan courthouse. Before that appearance, you'll see another high security move, much like this one, bringing him from that prison, that jail in Brooklyn, to the federal courthouse in Manhattan where these charges have been brought.
COLLINS: John, you know, earlier in that remarkable picture that Trump posted of Maduro on the USS Iwo Jima, he was wearing blinders, this insulated headset, he was handcuffed. Is that -- is that still the condition that he'd be in now? What would that look like as they're transporting him back and forth?
MILLER: So, after being processed, he's gone from being what we're looking at here, which is basically someone who is in the custody of the military to someone who's in custody of law enforcement. That might be the case by this -- by this time, probably not. Now, he's kind of merging into how they would handle a regular criminal defendant, not someone who's in the middle of a highly, you know, secure covert move.
COLLINS: John, can I just stop you for a moment? This image right here --
MILLER: Sure.
COLLINS: -- we're seeing these three helicopters on the move, the Statue of Liberty on -- on the right side of your screen, as Nicolas Maduro and his wife, we believe, are being transported from the West Side Highway, where that landing zone was that we were just at with Omar Jimenez, and now on the way to this facility in Brooklyn, where they're going to be held for the -- for the foreseeable future.
MILLER: Quite an incredible image passing the Statue of Liberty.
COLLINS: And can we talk about who is on that helicopter with him? We saw a bunch of DEA agents earlier. John, what would that look like?
MILLER: So, these are DEA agents from the New York office of the DEA. That's where this case was initiated. It became the subject of an indictment back in 2020. That's how long we're talking about. This is a case involving an alleged 25-year pattern of corruption by the leaders of Venezuela, including this leader, allegedly, many of -- of his appointees and cabinet members, his wife, obviously. [20:20:16]
And this is the agents who are flying with him, are basically a combination of the case agents, meaning one of them must be the arresting officer for him, and maybe for his wife, and the security teams that are in charge of making sure that all that goes smoothly. What you saw there was the people with the heavy vests in this picture, the night vision goggles, those are part of DEA SWAT team, which have provided this ring of security around him.
COLLINS: I mean, and what does that look like in terms of security while he's here in New York? And also once he's inside this facility that has become, I mean, obviously well known to you, but has become well known to everyone over the last decade, given the high-profile figures that have been held there. What will it look like? I mean, will they -- how do they accommodate holding a former world leader inside -- inside this -- this facility?
MILLER: Well, the way it'll start, Caitlin, is he will be held in one of the men's sections, his wife will be held in one of the women's sections, and they will likely be held in isolation for that first day. These are high profile prisoners, they are high security prisoners, so they will likely be held by themselves, alone in a cell, without a cellmate, probably under watch of the Bureau of Prisons constantly.
At the arraignment, their lawyers will have the chance to discuss with the judge or the magistrate what their conditions will be for being held. Bail is very unlikely to be an issue here in that there is no judge in the Southern District who's going to grant bail to someone who's charged with being behind this many resources or this high risk a defendant, or for that matter, his wife. But they may argue that they want him in general population, and then he may be mixing with the likes of P. Diddy and Luigi Mangione.
But at least for the first day, it is entirely probable that they will be by themselves, but separate.
COLLINS: What's it like inside that facility, John?
MILLER: So, that is not the pride of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. This is a building that has been in disrepair for some time, suffers from a lack of heat in the winter, which is right now, problems with plumbing and water, problems with medical care, particularly problems that have been the subject of complaints by female inmates who say there is not the health care, the medical facilities, the gynecology that's required for female prisoners.
So, it's a place that has a long history of substandard reports. It's a place that's been the subject of corruption investigations, other investigations. It's -- it is a facility that has had its problems through the years. And for an individual, two individuals, a husband and wife, who were at the pinnacle of power and dictatorship, who lived in a series of palaces and very opulent places, this is going to be a real shock to the system in terms of lifestyle changes. COLLINS: I mean, that's a great point, just in terms of what this looks like and, you know, what was happening 24 hours ago with Maduro and his wife. I just want to tell everyone who's maybe just tuning in, what we are watching are live images of helicopters believed to be carrying Maduro and his wife as they are making their way across the New York City skyline. You just saw a moment ago the Statue of Liberty in the background as he is being transported to the Brooklyn jail where he's expected to be held for the foreseeable future.
John, can we talk about where they're landing? Because earlier it was the helipads on the West Side Highway. Obviously, we were just watching those images there as he's expected to be transported to where Evan Perez was just standing a couple of minutes ago.
MILLER: Right.
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COLLINS: I mean, this is obviously all incredibly unusual.
MILLER: Yes, this is definitely a one of a kind. We've been through things like this before, similar things with prisoners like El Chapo, but none of them have been this high profile, including that of the president of Honduras, who was similarly charged and tried and sentenced, but not moved under this level of security. So, what you're seeing here is a landing in what appears to be Bush Terminal Park by a recreational facility.
All of that is sealed off. The helicopter is landing in the foreground. You see a truck from the NYPD's emergency service unit, which is the equivalent of their -- their SWAT team, and to the left of that you see a motorcade lined up ready to pull out.
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Vehicles will approach those helicopters from a closer distance. The prisoners will be transferred from the helicopters to those vehicles, and then they will move around to one of the entrances, either the front or the back, to where Evan Perez is stationed for us, and then they'll be processed into that jail.
COLLINS: Well, as Evan noted, and we'll see what happens before the judge when they appear before him, obviously, this is an indictment that has happened and been in place. It's now a superseding indictment, as what was rolled out by the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, today. It's an indictment that has existed for a long time.
And on the conspiracy to import cocaine, I mean, how much of a role, John, does Venezuela actually play in that when it comes to -- to just the entire, you know, what the DEA is dealing with on a daily basis?
MILLER: Well, from a global sense, countries like Venezuela play an incredibly important role in that cocaine comes from places like Colombia. Cartels operate there, but places like Venezuela serve as a trans-shipment point. So, it goes from Colombia by the ton to a place like Venezuela. Now, we see these helicopters on the ground. From Venezuela, it can move to Mexico or into the United States, or it can move from Venezuela to offshore ships that take it to Europe. A good deal of Venezuela's cocaine goes to Europe. And I'm going to break here, because I think we're going to be watching these prisoners, President Maduro and his wife, come out of these helicopters and move towards the next vehicle.
COLLINS: And John, they're being escorted very slowly, as we were seeing when he was just being walked across the helipad on the other, you know, where they took off from to land here in Brooklyn, where they are now. I mean, what is this kind of operation like when you're doing this at night? I mean, as we were watching him get off the plane, he changed over planes at Guantanamo Bay after being on board the USS Iwo Jima, then made his way here to New York.
We saw him being escorted slowly off the plane earlier by dozens, dozens of agents. And now, you know, all this is happening here as it's been dark for a couple hours in New York. Does that add any complicating factors to what these agents are carrying out?
MILLER: Actually, you know, the idea that it is a Saturday night in the middle of a holiday period, traffic is generally lighter. This occurred in the west side of Manhattan. Now, we see that DEA team moving him across the field towards a vehicle.
But these are special operators, these SWAT teams. They're used to working in darkness. In many ways, darkness can be their friend.
COLLINS: Yeah, in terms of how they're getting around. Elie Honig, you're also here. Can you tell us, just legally speaking, what's about to happen with -- with Maduro and his wife? I mean, we know obviously what happens when someone typically is indicted and arrested. What is -- what is going to play out over the next few hours for them?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Caitlin, as unusual as the circumstances are with a president or former president and his wife being in the defendant's chair, largely this will be our criminal justice process the way that it always works. So, as John and you have been discussing, he's on his way to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn right now, which houses federal inmates in New York City, presumably on Monday. We don't know for sure, but usually you try to get the initial appearance done the first available business day.
So, as early as Monday, he will make an appearance in federal court. They'll take him across the river to the southern district of New York. The courthouses there are at the southern tip of Manhattan.
Now, this case has been assigned to a federal judge named Alvin K. Hellerstein. He's been a judge since 1998. I've appeared in front of him many times. Either Judge Hellerstein himself will hold the initial conference or he will refer it to a magistrate judge, which is a different type of federal judge.
And at that hearing, again, which could be on Monday, Kaitlan, a few things will happen. First of all, Maduro and his wife will be advised of the charges against them. They will enter their initial pleas, probably almost assuredly not guilty at this point. They will make sure that both of these defendants have defense counsel.
And if they don't, then the court will assign defense counsel at least temporarily. And then as John Miller said, the judge will consider the issue of bail, but there's no way either of these folks are getting bail. So, that'll be the first appearance. And I look for that. I'd expect that to happen on Monday. We don't know for sure, but that's the most likely scenario.
COLLINS: And right now we're seeing these DEA agents around this -- this black SUV. That is what -- it's a little difficult to see from the aerial footage, but that is what we're watching after they got off of these helicopters that we believe are transporting Maduro and his wife to go to this -- this facility.
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You mentioned an attorney there, Elie. I mean, what is it like to be a criminal defense attorney for someone like Nicholas Maduro?
HONIG: Well, you know, it's incredibly difficult, but I will tell you, I've been in touch with a lot of prominent defense lawyers today who have told me that they are angling to get this case. And remember criminal defense lawyers, they don't make judgments about whether their clients are good or bad or guilty or not guilty. The reason this is an attractive case for private criminal defense lawyers is first of all, it's extremely high stakes.
The top lawyers like to do high stakes cases. And also they're going to get paid. They know this is a very wealthy individual. They will be able to charge him whatever they believe they can charge.
So, there's a bit of a scramble happening right now from what I'm hearing from several prominent defense lawyers to land this representation to represent Nicholas Maduro and his wife.
COLLINS: Did they tell you why -- why they want to -- I mean, what drives interest like that?
HONIG: Yeah. Yeah. Well, number one, big time criminal defense lawyers like to be involved in big time cases. This is going to be a massively high-profile case. Number two, there are some novel legal issues that are going to be presented in this case that I think some of these defense lawyers would like a chance to argue. We've really seen very little like this. There will be novel constitutional and international law arguments raised.
And third is just straight up money. Criminal defense lawyers, not a knock on them, but they like to get paid. This is obviously a very wealthy individual who can pay top dollar for his defense team.
COLLINS: Evan Perez, you're outside the, the detention facility where he is expected to be held, his wife, as well as John was talking about them being isolated upon arrival there and what that's going to look like. And can we also talk about the role that the D.A. has played in this and what that looks like, that collaboration going forward?
PEREZ: Yeah, no, Kaitlan, this is a case as -- as -- as John has laid out just a minute ago. This is a case 20 years in the making against Maduro himself at least a decade that DEA agents have been building a case against Maduro and more recently against his wife.
If you look at the indictment that was unsealed today, you'll see some of the allegations of him allegedly even when he was a foreign minister using especially selling diplomatic passports and helping drug traffickers move their money to launder it, as well as to move drugs North from South America to the United States.
What we're beginning to see, you know, you might hear some of the -- the -- the sirens from the police. I'm trying to figure out whether this is the direction they're coming from. But there's a crowd of several hundred people who have now arrived here just to the right of me near the Metropolitan Detention Center here in Brooklyn and under Brooklyn Waterfront. They're waving Venezuelan flags. It's a very celebratory atmosphere.
I'm told that there's another crowd that is at the federal courthouse. I guess people thought that he might be going there. But we're very close to where the heliport, the -- the other helipad is that he would be brought. And now we're beginning to hear a little bit of the sirens.
I can't tell whether -- whether the police are bringing him in this direction or whether they're coming from the other -- the opposite direction. Certainly, you're going to hear the crowd reaction, but certainly for FBI -- for DEA agents who've been working this case, Kaitlan. This is a big moment. You saw some of their presence in the photographs that were released from the White House today.
You saw DEA agents playing a role in the -- the -- the celebratory moment there to -- to -- document his -- his arrival in U.S. custody. And to bring a finer point to what John was talking about, this is a terrible place. This is the Metropolitan Detention Center here in -- in Brooklyn.
It is not a very nice place. It is -- some of the people who've been held here say that it's -- infested with rats. It's -- as John pointed out, apparently it doesn't have very good heating for -- for the -- for the -- for the -- the temperatures that we're dealing with here today.
By the way, I think you and I were texting earlier, it was about 75 degrees earlier today in Caracas when the -- the Maduros were taken from -- from their bed -- from their bedroom. It is well below freezing temperatures here in Brooklyn right now. And so we expect that obviously this is going to get -- they're going to bring him in and it's going to be done very, very quickly.
We have seen some of the -- the SWAT teams from the DEA and -- and from the FBI here trying to prepare for the securing of these two prisoners who are arriving. And again, there seems to be excitement building every time a police car goes by. You hear a roar from the crowd here in Brooklyn.
Kaitlan.
[20:35:06]
COLLINS: Yeah. And just to reemphasize the scene that we are watching play out right now to Evan's point about what a change the last 24 hours have brought for Nicholas Maduro. He was in his palace in Caracas 24 hours ago. Now he is being transported in multiple different motorcades, helicopters, planes on a, the USS Iwo Jima earlier today before ultimately being brought here to the end of this journey for him, for the foreseeable future of what this is going to look like.
Evan, you talked with MDC. I was texting with a criminal defense attorney earlier, maybe one of those that Elie was talking about, who's vying to represent Maduro, who said that place is a dungeon and was just describing, you know, what it looks like on the inside. And I do think there's a question of whether or not special accommodations are made for him or, you know, how they prepare for the arrival of someone this high profile any moment now.
PEREZ: I, well, one of the big concerns obviously is, his security, because obviously you want to make sure that nothing, no harm comes to him while he's in custody, while he awaits trial. That is the whole purpose of what they're concerned about here. It's not necessarily about his comfort. It's more about his security.
Now, it is also true that as a foreign leader, as a former foreign leader, although one that the United States, if you read the -- if you read the -- the statements from the -- from the U S government today, they do not recognize that Maduro is actually the leader of Venezuela or was the leader of Venezuela.
So, there's going to be some legal arguments that are going to be made in the next few months as to whether he deserves to be treated with any -- with any kind of special care.
One of the things that we saw, you know, more than 30 years ago when Manuel Noriega was -- was brought to the United States to face charges in Miami. He successfully argued that he should be treated as a prisoner of war that allowed him to wear his military uniform. When he went to trial. It also got him some better prison conditions when he was brought to the United States.
All of those things are probably going to be in play now by the former Venezuelan leader. But it's certainly, you know, certainly for the -- if you listen to some of the federal officials who've been involved in this case, I talked to someone who was running special operations for the DEA over the last few decades and oversaw some of these cases that were building against people in -- in -- in government in Venezuela. The -- this moment is a very important one because they say over the years, Venezuela has essentially become the command and control of drug trafficking from South America.
There's connections between the Venezuelan regime and Hezbollah over the number of years DEA has -- has cataloged some of those connections as well as connections with the FARC and the ELN. These are the two rebel militant organizations in Colombia. So, you know, for this moment for the United States, for the justice department, this has been something in the making for more than 20 years.
And so, now we'll see how these charges stand up in federal court in the, in the coming months, because again, you know, bringing an indictment is one thing, but trying to prove that Nicolas Maduro was indeed personally involved in all of this, you know, certainly I talked to people who say, who say they believe it's a strong case. We'll see how that works once this case goes -- goes to trial.
COLLINS: Yeah. And Elie -- I mean, Evan, we're watching this motorcade play out. It looks like it's heading exactly where you are. So, we're going to be watching this. There's a -- a white van surrounded with police lights. The back door appears to be open as it is slowly making its way through the streets here of New York with that police motorcade, a massive presence.
I can hear the Venezuelan -- a lot of those Venezuelan nationals that you said are behind you cheering and you, you mentioned Noriega, Evan. And I think that's a good point because we've been talking about the parallels of that case, you know, 36 years after he was captured by us forces in Panama. And you're right, he did get special accommodations. He had, you know, they nicknamed it the presidential suite where he was held.
It is not what anyone else would, you know, liken to a presidential suite, but -- but he didn't get special accommodations in those pretrial proceedings.
PEREZ: Yeah. I mean, that's what one of the things that I think is good. You're going to see play out in the next few months is perhaps his lawyers arguing that he deserves to be treated differently from some of the other prisoners. It's certainly not what -- what, you know, for example, the president -- the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez was -- was entitled to certainly while he was here.
But again, this case is so different, right? We've not -- when -- when the former Honduran president came here, you didn't have this crowd show up to cheer his arrival here. It kind of just he was just another criminal defendant. Maduro is absolutely different. And so, one of the things that they're going to be concerned about is making sure he's secure that he is that no harm comes to him or his wife.
[20:40:14]
They did in the last few years, add some additional facilities inside this -- this building. They have built a special unit for some of the high-profile prisoners that have been held here, including, of course, Diddy, the former rapper who was put on trial in -- in federal court here in New York.
So, there's a number of high-profile people who have been brought here and have been held at this prison, and they had to make sure that those people were secure. And because of the reputation of this place, I think there was a lot of concern by the Bureau of Prisons to try to at least improve those conditions to make sure those people were secure.
But again, the big concern is the security. It's not so much their comfort. Maduro is in for a very rude awakening once he enters these gates behind me.
COLLINS: Yeah, and Beth Sanner is here with us, our CNN National Security Analyst. She's the former Deputy Director of National Intelligence. I think that, you know, hearing the stunning level of detail that went into this would best be described as audacious raid successful one where they -- they captured Maduro and his wife as President Trump said.
He watched it live and said at one point that they were trying to get to the steel door that they had installed to close. It didn't make it there in time, you know, to think about what has happened to the Maduro's the last 24 hours. What that experience has looked like.
And now is there in this slow motorcade making their way to this facility where he's going to be detained. The level of intelligence in terms of having someone in Maduro's inner circle or having the intelligence of his movements, you know, as General Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs Chairman was saying earlier, they knew what he was eating. They knew what he was wearing. They knew the names of his pets. I mean, they spent extensive amounts of time to prepare for what led to this moment right here.
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's incredible, Kaitlan. I mean, whether you agree or disagree with the operation, you know, the CIA and the intelligence community, NSA and NGA were also involved. You know, their ability to do this, but they do this at their request and orders of the president, just like the U.S. military.
So -- but it is incredible. And as I was reading about this and listening to the president talk about it, I couldn't help but think about, you know, my experience. I have the honor of being a part of the Osama bin Laden raid.
And watching that unfold on a video feed, just like the president did, and how just heart-stopping that experience is. And it is incredible. And I really feel that CIA here, this is what Director Ratcliffe has talked about, trying to return CIA to its roots, its capabilities to do these sorts of things.
I'm not sure that ever went away completely, but certainly Director Ratcliffe is embracing this and really showing CIA's worth for this administration.
COLLINS: Do you see parallels, Beth, in between this moment that's playing out right now? And I should note, it looks like they're arriving there at the facility. We're seeing multiple agents exit that white van that we've been watching so closely. You could just see the massive police presence here. So, Evan Perez, if you see something, jump in with us as well. But I mean, watching this play out, Beth, and the parallels between this and Noriega in terms of the last time the United States deposed a strongman --
SANNER: Right.
COLLINS: What do you see?
SANNER: Well, I think that, you know, Kaitlan, I was just thinking about this. There are three things that are really different about what happened in Panama and what is happening now in Venezuela. The first one is that, you know, we had troops on the ground. We had 13,000 troops. We were part of the fabric of Panama. We had a real presence there.
Noriega was actually a CIA operative at one point. The second thing was that there was actually a legitimate government that had been elected, just like in Venezuela, but as the United States was coming in, that leader was sworn in by the judiciary, and at that point, there was a legitimate alternative government that was put in power. And then the third thing is that Panama, you know, it's just a totally different scale.
Venezuela is 12 times bigger than Panama. It's twice as big as Iraq. It has jungles like Vietnam. It has, you know, plains. It has mountains. It is an incredibly big and complex place that has any number of armed groups operating lawlessly in many parts of the country.
[20:45:09]
So, this is a scale that is just completely different. But Noriega and Maduro, nonetheless, are experiencing the very same kind of thing, coming into America and experiencing American justice.
COLLINS: And Elie, you know, we've heard some criticism from unsurprising figures, people like Congressman Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky. He wrote earlier and said, if this action were constitutionally sound, the attorney general wouldn't be tweeting that they've arrested the president of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law. Elie, what do you make of the charges not just facing Maduro, but also his wife and the role that she's played? Because she -- what we're watching right now, this transport, she's also included in all of this.
HONIG: Yeah, the charges are much more serious than that tweet suggests. So, there's really four charges here. So, one of them is conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism. That's an extremely serious charge. It means being part of an organization that engages in violence and traffics in drugs and sends them into the United States. Then there are multiple charges of importing mass quantities of cocaine into the United States.
The indictment alleges that at times they would send 250 tons of cocaine into the United States per year. So, that comes out to half a million pounds of cocaine per year, just enormous amounts. And then there are charges relating to use and distribution of, yes, firearms, machine guns, also incendiary devices and bombs.
So, the charges here are extraordinarily serious. Kaitlan worth noting, if any of these defendants are convicted, they are looking at a mandatory minimum of 30 years in federal prison. I should note that President Maduro is about 63 years old. And if they're convicted, the maximum sentence here would be life. So, the stakes are going to be all or nothing for Nicolas Maduro, for his wife and the other defendants in the case.
COLLINS: Elie, do you see a contradiction just as an attorney in the arrest and shocking capture of Maduro and Trump's recent pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was indicted and convicted of pretty similar charges?
HONIG: Oh, sure. I mean, there's some obvious tension in those two actions. That will be a political question that needs to play out. And to your earlier question, Kaitlan, and this one as well, about the unusual, extraordinarily unusual nature of arresting the head of another sovereign state, there will be, I promise you, that Maduro's defense lawyers will argue that this arrest violated international law, therefore should be void, therefore he cannot be prosecuted in U.S. civilian criminal courts.
Now, you may have heard, people may have heard throughout the day a reference to this 1989 opinion memo drafted by the Justice Department, a group of lawyers called OLC, the Office of Legal Counsel. In fact, the person who drafted the memo was William Barr --
COLLINS: Will Barr.
HONIG: -- who would then go on to become attorney general. That's right.
COLLINS: Yeah.
HONIG: -- two different times. And Bill Barr, the future attorney general, concluded that even if an arrest violates tenets and principles of international law, that does not mean that a person is immune from being prosecuted in the United States. Now, that's never been tested in courts. I think it's very likely, near certain, that it will be raised here in this case. I think it's fairly unlikely that a U.S. federal district court judge is going to say, I take issue with the way this arrest happened, and therefore I dismiss the charges against Nicolas Maduro. But it's one of those things we're going to have to wait and see.
COLLINS: Is -- if you're his criminal defense attorney, Elie, and we're watching all the scene play out, and I should just note, for anyone who's just tuning in, we are waiting to see Maduro being escorted into the Metro Detention Center, where he's expected to be held. That is what this giant motorcade of police presence is, after he was transported on a helicopter. You know, Elie, I keep -- we heard from the Secretary of Defense earlier, Pete Hegseth. I've heard from other administration officials who keep, you know, posting these videos with music to the background of comments Maduro made, comments the President made, saying F-A, F-O, F around, find out, basically, to Maduro. Is that something a criminal defense attorney would use? Does that matter at all in this?
HONIG: Oh, for sure. I mean, there will be a slew of pretrial motions, and one of them, Kaitlan, will be that commentary made by the President, the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, have prejudiced him, have slanted any potential jury pool against him, have been inflammatory, and the legal argument there will be that it infringes on his presumption of innocence.
Now, it's really difficult to succeed on that kind of argument, but I certainly look for that to be among the many pretrial arguments that we see.
Another point, Kaitlan, to watch as we -- you know, head into the court proceedings here, having looked at this indictment, it looks fairly strong to me, but it's hard to tell because it's always difficult -- it's always tricky to tie in the leader of a large organization like this, whether it's an international narcotics group, whether it's a terrorist group, whether it's a mob group, because a lot of times they're insulated, they're careful about who they talk to, and so one of the main questions that I'm watching for is, do they have a cooperator? Do they have someone from the inside who's helping them?
[20:50:25]
Now, we don't know for sure, but one of the original co-defendants who was indicted back in 2020 on this case pled guilty over this past summer of 2025, and there's no sentencing date, so here we are six, seven months later, and there's no sentencing date for that individual, which I'm not going to say for sure means they're cooperating, but it's consistent with the notion of somebody who is cooperating from the inside.
COLLINS: What do you mean by that? Go on.
HONIG: So, ordinarily, if somebody is cooperating, the first thing they do is they admit everything they know to prosecutors. If prosecutors are satisfied, then you will take a guilty plea, but what you will not do is set the sentencing date, because ideally, if you're a prosecutor, you want your cooperator to not be sentenced until he is done testifying.
So, I had cooperators who would plead guilty and not be sentenced for four, five, six years down the line, so the fact that there's not a sentencing date, ordinarily you'd be sentenced in a federal system three months or so after your guilty plea, so this guilty plea happened in the summer, June or July of 2025, ordinarily he would have been sentenced by now.
However, the fact that we are seven months down the road, there's not been a sentencing, there's not even a sentencing date, again, I don't want to draw any hard conclusions there, but I will tell you that's absolutely consistent with somebody who's cooperating with prosecutors.
COLLINS: Well, and Elie, you talked about how you'd appeared before the judge here. Can we talk about what that's going to look like? I mean, he's very familiar with this case in terms of, you know, how long this indictment was, the superseding indictment today was built on criminal charges related to Venezuela and the cocaine trafficking from 2011, I believe, and they've built on that.
HONIG: Right.
COLLINS: The judge who's going to be doing this, he's overseen this case for more than a decade now. I mean, what does it mean now that Maduro's actually in U.S. custody?
HONIG: Yeah, so this is Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. He took the federal bench in 1998. He's an appointee of President Bill Clinton. I appeared in front of Judge Hellerstein more times than I could ever count. I tried three cases in front of him all the way to jury verdict, including a big one with five defendants at once. He is a good judge. He is wise. He's been on the bench a very long time.
He's had a hand in many high-profile cases. In fact, at this very moment, Judge Hellerstein has a small piece of Donald Trump's appeal of his hush money conviction. Donald Trump is trying to move that case over to federal court and that piece of the case is actually with Judge Hellerstein.
It is worth mentioning Judge Hellerstein took senior status, meaning he has a reduced caseload some years ago, and he's currently 92 years old. Now, I had a small case in front of him three, four years ago. He is sharp. He is with it. But 92 years old, you know, this is a major, major trial. It'll be up to him whether he wants to keep it. Sometimes when you have a judge who's on senior status like Judge Hellerstein, they will decide voluntarily, this is not for me. I need to move this to somebody else. I'm on a reduced caseload.
So, we'll see if Judge Hellerstein keeps this case or not, but if he does, he is a very experienced jurist. He knows how to control his courtroom. He knows how to try a complex case.
COLLINS: And I should note for everyone watching, this is the view above the Metro detention facility where he is going to be held. This is from just a few moments ago as we were watching this play out.
Rahm Emanuel is also here with me. He's CNN's Senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator, also the former ambassador to Japan under President Biden. And Rahm, when I'm looking at this, and Maduro's in U.S. custody, and he's about to be in front of a judge, as Elie noted, about 36 hours potentially, as soon as then from now. Maduro's in Brooklyn. Is it clear to you who is running Venezuela as of this moment?
RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: No, I mean, one of the things that was all of us woke up to, the president of the United States, and this is going to be reputational damage for the United States, through the democratically elected government that we stood by, who she won the Nobel peace prize, just threw her out on the bus and said we're working now with the vice president and the secretary of state been on the phone with her. This is -- I mean, that's what's -- you know, you look at this and it's reputational damage for the United States. We talk and we're charging a person for drugs.
We just commuted a sentence for the former president of Honduras who's the largest drug kingpin, and we took control of their oil at the very same time that Russia's claiming that they own Ukraine's nuclear facility. So, there's a -- you know, there's a lot of questions that have to be answered both in this particular case and the ramifications, Kaitlan, beyond this case to what's happening geo strategically around the globe.
[20:55:00]
COLLINS: Well, I think you make a good point on Machado because the president was saying earlier that it would be very tough, that was his quote, for her to lead Venezuela, for her to -- or to -- it wasn't clear, you know, what he meant when he said she doesn't have support inside the country. I mean, she did win the most recent opposition primaries by -- by a big margin. I think that may raise the question of who picks the new leader of Venezuela.
EMANUEL: No, it's -- it's an open -- it's an open question. I mean, I think there's also -- she not only won the biggest election, she won a Nobel peace prize that the president, you know, covets in big numbers. I don't know. Right now you saw the pictures and stories coming out of Caracas is basically calm uncertainty.
What you don't want is a lot of violence and you don't want a country that implodes and explodes all the problems throughout the region. There's other implications to this case, not only who you're going to deal with there, but what are the geo strategic implications around the globe for an action that the United States just took.
In this case, I would add, I mean, look at this. You have basically Iran is on its back heel. Venezuela, we took in control of the oil, it looks like, and we're basically deposed ahead of state. Cuba is a failed state in this area.
COLLINS: Rahm Emanuel, stand by.
EMANUEL: Syria, Russia --
COLLINS: I want to go back to Evan Perez. I want to come back to you. But Evan Perez is outside the facility.
Evan, what are you seeing out there?
PEREZ: Well, we had been expecting that perhaps they would bring Maduro, the motorcade would bring him in through this entrance, but there's another entrance on the other side. I just talked to some of the NYPD here, and they told me he's already inside, that the motorcade brought him in through that side, which, you know, again, if you see where we are here on the Brooklyn waterfront, a large crowd, several hundred people are over by the expressway, and every few minutes you hear them, you know, you hear a roar erupt from there.
Again, they were assuming, I think, that they would get to see the former leader of the Venezuelan government come in that way, but clearly what the motorcade did and what the security here did is they took him through another entrance, which is on the other side of the building, and we have used choppers who may have caught the entrance of that motorcade into this -- into this facility, and so that's how they were able to bring him in.
Again, one of the big concerns, you can tell from the -- from just the way the police have been acting here today with the arrival of the SWAT teams and so on, was to make sure that they could get him in here safely, securely, and they appear to have done that at this point, Kaitlan.
He is now inside the Metropolitan Detention Center here in Brooklyn, and he begins the process being held in custody until he awaits trial. Of course, we expect that he might be in court for his first appearance or perhaps his arraignment as soon as Monday.
Kaitlan?
COLLINS: Evan, do we know if he's gotten a mugshot, been fingerprinted? How does -- has that already happened or is that what will happen now that he's inside this facility?
PEREZ: Yeah -- yeah, we're told that some of that happened already at the DEA field office. That's one of the reasons why they brought him when he came in from the Air Force Base. They flew him to that heliport on the west side, which was the closest to the DEA field office, which is on the west side of Manhattan.
And from there, they brought him back to the heliport and brought him to another helipad, which is at a park just right near this facility, again, right on the Brooklyn waterfront. I think you saw those extraordinary pictures of the helicopter going by with the view of the Statue of Liberty, something that he would have been able to see as he flew over the New York waterfront.
Now, at this point, he is inside the detention center in Brooklyn where he will await his trial.
COLLINS: So, we don't expect to see him tomorrow?
PEREZ: No, we don't expect that he'll make any public appearances. Again, this is all up to the judge, but we don't expect that the judge will have any hearings at least until Monday. Again, it's all up to the judge.
At this point, we have not yet seen anything on the docket to indicate this, but again, we're waiting to see that. And that is most likely when he will make his first court appearance, his first public appearance, and we'll see him here for the first time the exact charges that he and his wife are facing.
COLLINS: Yeah, and I still think one huge question is, who is going to represent him? And do we know if they would have the same attorney, Evan? Or how does that -- Would they have different attorneys? How does that work?
PEREZ: No. Yeah, no, we have not yet seen that. We haven't seen any information of who might be representing him. We expect that we're going to see that perhaps tomorrow. We're going to get some information about that tomorrow.
