From palace to prison: Venezuelan strongman Maduro locked in troubled Brooklyn jail
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are spending their days for the foreseeable future at a notorious jail in Brooklyn known for housing high-profile defendants awaiting trial in New...
By Fox News · Fox News
Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are spending their days for the foreseeable future at a notorious jail in Brooklyn known for housing high-profile defendants awaiting trial in New York City . The Metropolitan Detention Center, known as MDC Brooklyn, is a sprawling, industrial-style facility that has faced a series of scandals in recent years involving assaults and poor prison conditions. Maduro, the Venezuelan leader arrested in his home in Caracas by the U.S. military over the weekend, is now being held at the jail on narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation and weapons charges. MDC Brooklyn currently holds more than 1,300 inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons. A BOP representative confirmed to Fox News Digital that Maduro and his wife were among that figure. MADURO'S WIFE SUFFERED 'SIGNIFICANT INJURIES' IN DRAMATIC CAPTURE, ATTORNEY ALLEGES MDC Brooklyn inmates include little-known defendants and famous ones, and they face a range of mild to serious charges. Maduro is likely to be held in what is known as the "VIP section" of the jail, according to Renato Stabile. Stabile is a New York-based criminal defense lawyer who represented former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was also held in MDC Brooklyn before he was freed in December as a result of Trump granting him a controversial pardon. Stabile told Fox News Digital the VIP section is part of the east side of the jail, where high-profile figures like Hernández, rap artist Sean "Diddy" Combs and convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried were once held. Others at MDC Brooklyn include Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of murdering a top health insurance CEO. Jeffrey Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was also held there. Those on the east side will be "hanging out together every day and watching TV together and playing ping pong together and doing whatever they do on that side," Stabile said. He said the west side, where general population inmates are held, might b…