Nicolás Maduro will have already spent more than 24 hours in one of the toughest U.S. jails when he appears in court Monday to face charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

The ousted Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, joined the approximately 1,330 inmates at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Saturday following a surprise night time raid and odyssey that included a U.S. warship, a plane and a helicopter.

For years, the hulking concrete jail has drawn sharp criticism from judges, lawyers and watchdogs. In 2024, one judge bluntly dubbed the conditions at New York City’s only federal jail as “dreadful in many respects.” Another described them as “dangerous, barbaric.”

By all accounts, it’s a world away from the rarefied public existence Maduro and Flores had been living.

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The palace

In Caracas, Maduro lived inside a sprawling military complex called Fort Tiuna.

Venezuela never made public exactly where Maduro resided within the military base and he’s shared little of his private living space on social media. But on one occasion followers caught a brief glimpse of a modest kitchen, where his wife was shown making coffee using a worn cloth.

Most of Maduro’s public life unfolded at Miraflores Palace, the presidential seat in downtown Caracas that occupies an entire city block. He hosted foreign leaders and athletes at the 19th century French neo-baroque mansion, which features a large central courtyard and ceremonial halls decorated with chandeliers, carpets and portraits of national heroes.

He greeted supporters from the palace balcony during government-organized rallies. Maduro also often had visitors over for coffee, and displayed symbolic items such as the sword of independence hero Simón Bolívar.

First appearance

On Monday, Maduro will be taken across the water from his Brooklyn lock-up to federal court in Lower Manhattan where he’ll face U.S. charges that he played a key role in a broad conspiracy over 25 years to traffic cocaine into the U.S.

The indictment released on Saturday accuses Maduro and others of partnering with groups including the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua, which have been designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations.

Authorities have devised a plan to whisk the ousted leader across the river by helicopter on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing logistics. They are planning to fly Maduro over New York Harbor on a route that will take him past the Statue of Liberty toward Wall Street. From a helipad there, a short motorcade would carry him to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, said the person.

The hearing is set for 12 p.m. in New York and will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, a Bronx native appointed by Bill Clinton who has presided over cases tied to the Sept. 11 attacks and major financial fraud trials.

Bail is unlikely. The judge is expected to set an initial schedule for evidence exchanges and pretrial motions, with a trial not expected until at least 2027.

It is not clear if Maduro or his wife has hired a lawyer for the hearing. Sometimes defendants are represented by free lawyers from the Federal Defenders of New York for purposes of an initial court appearance.

Speaking in an interview on CNBC on Monday, Manhattan U.S. attorney Jay Clayton said that he was fully comfortable with Maduro’s prosecution.

Restrictive conditions

At his new temporary cell in Brooklyn, Maduro is likely to be held under the jail’s most restrictive conditions.

At MDC, high-risk detainees are typically placed in special housing, where confinement can stretch to 23 hours a day. Movement outside the cell is tightly controlled. Confinement in the MDC “will test the strongest mind,” said Justin Paperny, a prison consultant who has advised clients held at the facility.

Paperny cited staffing difficulties, training deficiencies and mental health issues among the prisoners as challenges to maintaining the jail.

Other complaints include rotten food, thin mattresses and filthy, broken toilets. Inmates can become disoriented and lose track of the time, with lights constantly on and no view of the outside, Paperny said.

A representative for the Bureau of Prisons didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Bureau of Prisons has said conditions at MDC in Brooklyn have improved, citing staffing increases and a reduced inmate population.

Paperny said Maduro’s communications will be closely monitored and his movements carefully managed, with security and physical safety taking precedence over comfort.

The MDC is the only federal jail in New York as the Bureau of Prisons closed Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2021 to address deteriorating conditions. Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in the MCC in 2019.

Famous inmates

Since then, MDC has been a temporary home for high-profile inmates, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell and Luigi Mangione.

Sam Bankman-Fried was held in the jail before his 2023 conviction for fraud at his FTX cryptocurrency exchange. While there he said he befriended former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty in 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S.

Hernandez was later transferred to serve a 45-year sentence in a prison in West Virginia. He was recently pardoned by President Donald Trump.

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—With assistance from Kasia Klimasinska.

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