Venezuelan First Lady’s Nephews Arrested For U.S. Drug Trafficking

Two nephews of Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife, were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday and turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the official said.

Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, the godson of the Venezuelan leader, and Francisco Flores de Freitas, Maduro’s nephew, were arrested in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday by local police and immediately turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which transported them that same day to NY, the sources said.

Citing two people familiar with the case, the Journal reported that agents filmed and taped meetings between the two men and a DEA informant.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (R) holds hands with his wife Cilia Flores as they arrive for a meeting in the Summit of South American-Arab Countries, in Riyadh in this handout picture provided by Miraflores Palace on November 11, 2015.

“Yesterday we formally presented a request for the court to open a preliminary inquiry into high-ranking officials, especially Maduro, because we consider that they have committed crimes against humanity”, he told reporters in the Spanish capital – a move confirmed by an ICC source. “He will blame the arrests on USA imperialism and see them as an attempt to undermine his government”.

Vigil said Campos claimed to law enforcement that he is the son of Flores and stepson of Maduro. Both Campos and Flores were traveling on diplomatic passports but don’t have diplomatic immunity, Vigil said.

Flores, who Maduro likes to call the “First Combatant”, is one of the most-powerful members of Venezuela’s revolutionary government and a constant presence alongside her husband whenever he appears in public.

A former president of the National Assembly who is now running for congress, Flores became romantically involved with Maduro in the 1990s while serving as lawyer for the then-jailed Hugo Chavez.

Maduro is scheduled to speak at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday to defend his country’s human rights record in the face of accusations he has stifled dissent.

The U.S. Treasury has placed nine Venezuelan officials on a “kingpin” list, which bars those suspected of involvement in large-scale drug trafficking from the US financial system.

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