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Judge Sets June 1, 2027 Trial for Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores

The schedule advances a high-stakes narcotics and weapons case set to test claims of sovereign immunity, the legality of the U.S. seizure, classified-evidence disputes.

FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro points to supporters during a campaign rally in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
A motorcade believed to be carrying ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, leaves Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center on the day of their hearing at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse on criminal charges, including narcoterrorism, in New York City, U.S., July 22, 2026. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Overview

  • A Manhattan federal judge approved the schedule at a July 22, 2026 hearing that fixes jury selection and trial to begin on June 1, 2027 and orders key pretrial steps over the next year.
  • Prosecutors charge Maduro with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine and allege he and Flores used state power and armed groups to move thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.
  • Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty and remain held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after U.S. special forces captured them in a January raid in Caracas.
  • The court set deadlines for defense motions on sovereign immunity in early September, an oral-argument hearing in November, and additional motions after most classified discovery is turned over by November.
  • The case already involves U.S. policy and legal moves that matter for trial preparation, including a Justice Department legal opinion backing the January operation and an April OFAC change allowing Venezuela to pay the defendants' legal fees.