The Trump administration is dramatically upping the ante in its showdown with Venezuela, raising the reward for Nicolás Maduro’s arrest to a staggering $50 million. They’re now branding the Venezuelan president as the leader of one of the world’s largest drug trafficking operations.
In a recorded statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi laid out the explosive charge on Thursday, accusing Maduro of partnering with cartels to smuggle fentanyl-laced cocaine into the United States.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Bondi said.
Maduro was first indicted in 2020 in federal court in Manhattan, during Trump’s previous term. U.S. prosecutors charged him and several close allies with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. At the time, the United States offered $15 million for his capture. The Biden administration later increased that to $25 million, matching the reward once offered for Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks.
Four years later, Maduro remains in power. He has faced international condemnation over his 2024 reelection, with the United States, the European Union, and multiple Latin American countries recognizing his opponent as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
The bounty announcement comes weeks after the Trump administration negotiated the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Caracas. In exchange, the U.S. deported scores of migrants to El Salvador under the president’s immigration crackdown. Soon after, Washington allowed U.S. oil giant Chevron to resume drilling in Venezuela, reversing earlier sanctions restrictions.
Bondi said the Justice Department has seized more than $700 million in assets tied to Maduro, including two private jets, and traced nearly seven tons of confiscated cocaine directly to the Venezuelan president.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil dismissed the move, calling it “pathetic” and accusing Bondi of staging “a crude political propaganda operation.”
“We’re not surprised, coming from whom it comes from,” Gil said in a statement. “The same one who promised a nonexistent ‘secret list’ of Epstein and who wallows in scandals for political favors. Her show is a joke, a desperate distraction from her own misery.”
The U.S. State Department says the $50 million reward applies to information leading directly to Maduro’s arrest or conviction. Whether anyone will take that offer remains to be seen.
