The Maduro narco case is like a US playbook for targeting foreign drug victims

In a dramatic military operation carried out in the early hours of Saturday, the United States arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores, to face charges stemming from their involvement in drug trafficking and maintaining a dictatorship in the country.

For months, President Donald Trump has been urging Maduro to step down as head of state – in what is now considered illegal – while accusing him of supporting drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations by the US.

According to U.S. officials, the Justice Department requested military assistance in arresting Maduro after he – along with his wife, son, two politicians and an alleged gang leader – were indicted on terrorism, drug and weapons charges in 2020.

While questions have swirled about the legality of the Trump administration’s actions, the US has previously launched similar operations targeting foreign dictators and suspected drug lords.

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Here’s another look at some of the cases in which US officials have targeted some of the world’s most notorious leaders accused of involvement in the world’s most widespread drug trade.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks to supporters during a rally to mark the 19th anniversary of the Battle of Santa Ines in Caracas on Dec. 10, 2025. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Conviction of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega

In 1990, 36 years to the day of Maduro’s capture, the US was arrested Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, under similar circumstances.

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Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega at the commemoration of the death of national hero Omar Torrijo in Panama City. (Bill Gentile/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Noriega came to power in 1983, and was long considered a whistleblower for the US to provide information on drug trafficking in the region. Working as a paid CIA collaborator since the 1970s, Noriega allowed the US to set up listening posts in Panama, while also allowing pro-American aid to flow through Panama to El Salvador and Nicaragua.

However, under the noses of US officials, Noriega created “the hemisphere’s first narckleptocracy,” a Senate subcommittee report said, calling him “the best example in recent US foreign policy of how a foreign leader can manipulate the United States to harm our interests.” in accordance with Reuters.

It is reported that he worked with the leader of the famous drug cartel Pablo Escobar to import cocaine into the US, while helping to transport millions of dollars in drug money to banks in Panama, which led to him receiving large sums of money.

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Former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, shown in this January 4, 1990 file photo. (Reuters/HO JDP)

One year before his arrest, a federal judge issued a 12-count indictment against Noriega, effectively paving the way for President George HW Bush to send thousands of US troops to Panama in an operation titled, “Just Cause.” Noriega faced charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

When US troops entered the country’s capital and military headquarters, Noriega fled to the Vatican embassy while, according to popular rumors, dressed as a woman.

Noriega was finally forced to surrender on Jan. 3. 1990, and was later sentenced to 40 years in a Florida prison. After 17 years in prison, he was sent to France and later to Panama, where he died in 2017.

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The arrest of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

In 2022, three months after leaving office, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at the request of US officials at his home in Tegucigalpa on charges of working with drug traffickers to transport more than 400 tons of cocaine to the US, in accordance with The Associated Press.

After his arrest, Hernández was extradited to the US to stand trial.

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Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 1, 2021. (Andy Buchanan/AP)

U.S. officials say the disgraced leader has worked with drug cartels since 2004, accepting millions of dollars in bribes as his political career rose from a rural congressman to the president of the National Congress to the highest office in Honduras.

During his trial in Manhattan federal court, Hernández testified that although drug money was paid to almost every political party in Honduras, he did not accept bribes while in office. He maintains that he is a victim of drug traffickers who wanted revenge after he helped extradite them to the US, while working with three presidential administrations to limit the importation of drugs into the country.

Hernández was then convicted by a jury in March 2024, the judge sentenced him to 45 years in a US prison and fined him $8 million.

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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, second from right, is handcuffed on a waiting plane as he is extradited to the United States, at the Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 21, 2022. (Elmer Martinez/AP)

However, after serving only 17 months of his sentence, Hernández was pardoned by Trump in late 2025.

“The people of Honduras thought he was suspended, and it was a terrible thing,” Trump said. “They said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. They also said it was the Biden administration – I looked at the facts and agreed with them.”

After Trump announced Hernández’s pardon, Honduran Attorney General Joel Zelaya said in a social media post that his office was looking into indicting the former president, but did not specify which officials were investigating.

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Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s trial and verdict

In 2017, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the notorious leader of Mexico’s “Sinaloa cartel”, was extradited to the US to stand trial on drug trafficking and related charges in several district courts across the country.

A notorious crime boss who escaped arrest several times and escaped from a Mexican prison twice, federal prosecutors say Guzman used a variety of tactics to smuggle tons of cocaine into the US in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman when he was transferred from Mexico to the US (AP)

Former cartel member Miguel Angel Martinez testified in federal court that the group used trucks to transport 3,000 cans full of cocaine across the US-Mexico border, while estimating that the vehicles carry 25 to 30 tons of cocaine worth $400 million to $500 million a year. in accordance with The Associated Press.

After the profits arrived in Tijuana, Guzman sent three of his private planes every month to pick up the cash – each plane carrying about $10 million back home.

After his landmark trial in Brooklyn, Guzman was sentenced to life in prison – serving another prison term after a previous conviction on drug-trafficking charges led to a mandatory life sentence without parole. The judge also ordered Guzman to pay $12.6 billion in ill-gotten gains from his empire built on drug trafficking and murder.

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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by the military during a presentation in Mexico City, Jan. 8, 2016. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo/File Photo)

A defiant Guzman used his last moments in public to criticize the judge for not granting him a new trial following unsubstantiated allegations of judicial misconduct.

“My case was tainted and he denied me a proper trial while the whole world was watching,” Guzman said through an interpreter.

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Guzman will live out his days in the Supermax federal prison, located in Florence, Colorado, where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day.

“Since the government will put me in prison where my name will never be heard again, I take this opportunity to say that there is no justice here,” said Guzman when he was sentenced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.