U.S. raises bounty for wanted Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, to $25m over alleged narcotics trafficking

U.S. authorities have raised the bounty from $15 million to $25 million for Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his two allies, Diosdado Cabello Rondón and Vladimir Padrino López, wanted for drug trafficking.

The U.S. Department of State in a statement on its website said Mr Maduro and his allies are wanted for narcotics trafficking, offering a total of $65 million for information that would lead to their arrest and conviction.

“@USTreasury just sanctioned Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist group. Run by the corrupt and contemptible Nicolás Maduro, it is responsible for trafficking drugs into the U.S.,” said the department.

It added, “Help us take down Maduro and his cronies Diosdado Cabello Rondón & Vladimir Padrino López!”

In a wanted poster of Mr Maduro, labelling him a “designated global terrorist cartel de los soles leader”, the U.S. Department of State offered $25 million to whoever is able to provide “information leading to the arrest and/or conviction”.

The Venezuelan president is wanted “for narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, conspiracy to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of a drug crime”.

A reward of $25 million and $15 million was, respectively, offered for information leading to the arrest of the accused duo.

This comes barely a day after Mr Maduro marked the one-year anniversary of his latest presidential election victory, adjudged by the U.S. and its allies as fraudulent.

On Sunday, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio derided Mr Maduro in a scathing post on X as Venezuela held municipal elections for hundreds of mayoral and thousands of council positions.

In March, Mr Maduro also lashed out at Mr Rubio, calling him an “imbecile”.

The U.S. has refused to recognise Mr Maduro’s government and has targeted Venezuela with several sanctions.