New Prison Photos of Maduro Raise Eyebrows

New photographs from a New York federal jail show ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro slimmer than in power, smiling, and holding up a peace sign. The images, dated June 25, 2026, place the 63-year-old in a gray tracksuit and white sneakers inside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

He is awaiting trial on federal drug-trafficking charges. U.S. Special Forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a nighttime raid on their Caracas residence on Jan. 3, in an operation ordered by President Trump. They were flown to New York.

JUST NOW: The official account of Nicolás Maduro has released new photographs of him taken in prison. pic.twitter.com/HcjDWLxKRI

— WORLD NEWS (@_MAGA_NEWS_) August 30, 2026

Prosecutors say the couple used their offices to work with cartels and move large amounts of cocaine into the United States from 1999 to 2025. Both have pleaded not guilty. Trial is set for June 2027.

The pictures show a man who once ran Venezuela from presidential palaces now standing in a detention center. One frame has him grinning with two fingers raised. Another shows him standing in the same casual clothes. He looks substantially thinner than he did in office.

Maduro held power for more than a decade despite sanctions and accusations that his government rigged elections, jailed opponents, and hollowed out democratic institutions. Millions left the country during economic collapse and repression. That period ended when American forces took him and Flores into U.S. custody.

Federal prosecutors allege he and his allies ran a cocaine pipeline into the United States while using the Venezuelan state as cover. Until trial, he remains at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Venezuela is now led by former vice president Delcy Rodríguez, who has moved closer to the Trump administration after years of hostility under Maduro. The jailhouse photos are the latest image of that reversal: the former ruler posing for a camera inside a U.S. federal facility instead of a palace.