A well-oiled operation to transfer captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from prison to court in the US is under way.
The 63-year-old is due to face charges including narcoterrorism and weapon offences at a Manhattan court later today.
A motorcade including an armoured vehicle carrying the ousted leftist leader was seen leaving the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn early this morning.
Bound in handcuffs and sporting beige overalls with orange trainers, Maduro was filmed from a news helicopter being led from the vehicle into an SUV at dusk.
As day broke he was loaded into a helicopter and flown to Manhattan island.
Surrounded by a squad of armed police and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officers, the 6’3 former union leader was lead away from the landing pad to another armoured motorcade.
Court documents accuse him of overseeing a ‘corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking’.
Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, is due to appear alongside her husband as a defendant against the charges.
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