STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The ousted president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, are starting their day in a Brooklyn jail. They're expected to appear in a court later today to face drug trafficking and other charges. Their arrest over the weekend in the middle of Venezuela's capital raises questions about the reach of American law.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Here's NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. So, Carrie, what are the allegations against Maduro and his family?
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: A grand jury in New York first indicted Maduro back in 2020. Then a new grand jury there added new charges recently and added new defendants, too. Maduro faces four felony charges. That includes narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import tons of cocaine and possession of machine guns and other destructive devices. U.S. law enforcement accuses Maduro of sitting at the top of a vast conspiracy, basically to line his pockets by overseeing the flow of drugs into the U.S. and helping violent cartels along the way. Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, a former attorney general of Venezuela, also faces charges. The Trump administration had placed a $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro, and Attorney General Pam Bondi says they will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. So let's break down the scale of this whole thing because the operation - I mean, air, land, sea, middle of the night inside a foreign capital. I mean, how does the Trump administration justify such an extraordinary move?
JOHNSON: The Trump administration has not released any detailed legal analysis or other reasoning to explain the basis for this operation called Absolute Resolve. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio says this was a law enforcement action, not a military invasion. Maduro was arrested by FBI agents and read his rights, Rubio says. Here's more from Rubio on the ABC show "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.
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MARCO RUBIO: Obviously, this was not a friendly territory. So in order to arrest him, we had to ask the Department of War to become involved in this operation. The Department of War went in. They hit anything that was a threat to the agents that were going in to arrest him, and they hit anything that was a threat on the way out. And that was a very limited and targeted operation.
JOHNSON: The Trump administration seems to be relying on a controversial Justice Department memo by Bill Barr, who was attorney general in Trump's first term. That memo was from 1989. And it paved the way for American law enforcement to make arrests in other countries, even if those actions might violate international law. The memo was issued months before the U.S. captured Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega and sent him to the U.S. to face charges. Noriega fought back and mostly lost, but that legal fight took a lot of years.
MARTÍNEZ: So eventually, Nicolas Maduro's going to make an argument in court. What might that be?
JOHNSON: Maduro might argue that he should enjoy immunity as a head of state in Venezuela, even though the Trump administration says he was not elected freely and fairly. Maduro also might try to challenge how the U.S. captured him. But legal scholars say that could be difficult because there's a lot of Supreme Court precedent saying it doesn't matter how a defendant gets onto American soil once they're here. And then there's one more complication. American courts don't really like to weigh in on sensitive matters related to a president's national security power. So U.S. courts could be leery about protests from Maduro and others that the administration failed to notify Congress or get any approval before this operation.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thanks.
JOHNSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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