In a stunning military operation conducted in the early morning hours on Saturday, the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife Cilia Flores, to face federal charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the drug trade and maintaining a dictatorship within the country. 

For months, President Donald Trump had urged Maduro to step down from his role as the country’s leader – in what has been widely viewed as an illegitimate position – while accusing him of supporting drug cartels that have been designated as terror organizations by the U.S. 

According to U.S. officials, the Department of Justice requested military assistance in apprehending Maduro after he – and later his wife, son, two political figures and an alleged international gang leader – had been indicted on federal terrorism, drugs and weapons charges in 2020. 

While questions have swirled regarding the legality of the Trump administration's actions, the U.S. has previously launched similar operations targeting foreign dictators and suspected drug kingpins.

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Here is a look at other instances in which U.S. officials took aim at some of the world’s most notorious leaders accused of being directly involved in some of the most prolific drug operations across the globe. 

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

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Noriega initially rose to power in 1983, and was long viewed as an informant for the U.S. to provide information regarding drug trafficking in the region. Working as a paid CIA collaborator since the 1970s, Noriega allowed the U.S. to set up listening posts in Panama, while also allowing pro-American aid to funnel through Panama to El Salvador and Nicaragua.

However, under the nose of U.S. officials, Noriega formed "the hemisphere's first narcokleptocracy," a Senate subcommittee report said, calling him "the best example in recent U.S. foreign policy of how a foreign leader is able to manipulate the United States to the detriment of our own interests," according to Reuters. 

He reportedly worked alongside notorious drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar to funnel cocaine into the U.S., while also facilitating the movement of millions of dollars in drug cash through Panama’s banks, which led to him receiving large amounts of kickbacks.

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One year before his arrest, a federal grand jury handed down a 12-count indictment against Noriega, effectively clearing the path for President George H. W. Bush to deploy thousands of U.S. troops to Panama in an operation titled, "Just Cause." Noriega faced federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges. 

As U.S. troops moved in on the country’s capital and military headquarters, Noriega sought refuge at the Vatican’s embassy while, according to a popular rumor, dressed as a woman. 

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

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In 2022, three months after leaving office, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at the request of U.S. officials at his home in Tegucigalpa on charges of working alongside drug traffickers to transport over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., according to The Associated Press.

Following his arrest, Hernández was extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for his alleged crimes.

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U.S. officials alleged the disgraced leader had collaborated with drug cartels since 2004, accepting millions of dollars in bribes as his political career escalated from rural congressman to president of the National Congress to Honduras’ highest office.

During his trial in Manhattan federal court, Hernández testified that while drug money was paid to virtually all political parties in Honduras, he did not accept bribes while in office. He maintained that he was a victim of vengeful drug traffickers seeking retribution after he aided in their extradition to the U.S., while also working alongside three presidential administrations to limit drug imports into the country. 

Hernández was subsequently convicted by a jury in March 2024, with a federal judge sentencing him to 45 years in a U.S. prison and issuing an $8 million fine.

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

"The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing," Trump said. "They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup – and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them."

After Trump announced Hernández’s pardon, Honduran Attorney General Johel Zelaya said in a post to social media that his office was looking into bringing charges against the former president, but did not specify what crimes officials were investigating.

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In 2017, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the notorious leader of Mexico’s "Sinaloa Cartel," was extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on drug trafficking and related crimes in several district courts throughout the country. 

The notorious crime boss evaded capture on several occasions and escaped from Mexican prison twice, with federal prosecutors revealing Guzman used a variety of crafty tactics to smuggle tons of cocaine into the U.S. during the 1990s and early 2000s.

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Former cartel member Miguel Angel Martinez testified in federal court that the gang used trucks to carry 3,000 cans filled with cocaine over the U.S.-Mexico border, while estimating the vehicles carried 25 to 30 tons of cocaine worth $400 million to $500 million into the country each year, according to The Associated Press. 

After the profits would arrive in Tijuana, Guzman would send his three private jets on a monthly basis to pick up the cash – with each plane carrying roughly $10 million back home. 

Following his landmark federal trial in Brooklyn, Guzman was sentenced to life in prison – tacking on another prison sentence after an earlier guilty verdict on drug-trafficking charges resulted in a mandatory sentence of life without parole. A judge also ordered Guzman to pay $12.6 billion in ill-gotten proceeds stemming from his empire built on drug trafficking and murder.

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A defiant Guzman used his final moments in the public spotlight to blast the judge for not granting him a new trial following unsubstantiated allegations of juror misconduct. 

"My case was stained and you denied me a fair trial when the whole world was watching," Guzman said through an interpreter.

Guzman is set to live out his days behind bars in the federal government’s Supermax prison, located in Florence, Colorado, where detainees are kept in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. 

"Since the government will send me to a jail where my name will not ever be heard again, I take this opportunity to say there was no justice here," Guzman said at his sentencing. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The day after elite U.S. forces captured wanted narco-terrorist and former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah will no longer have operations in the South American state.

The Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is responsible for both the bombing of the U.S. embassy, which killed 63 people, and the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983, when 241 U.S. military personnel were killed.

Speaking on CBS' Face the Nation, Rubio said, "It's very simple, okay? In the 21st century, under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere, in the sphere of control and the crossroads for Hezbollah, for Iran and for every other malign influence in the world. That's just not gonna exist." He also told NBC's Meet the Press that, in regard to Venezuela, that meant, "No more Iran/Hezbollah presence there."

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Walid Phares, who has advised U.S. presidential candidates and is a leading expert on Hezbollah, told Fox News Digital that "Hezbollah has a long history in Venezuela and has emerged as a significant security concern in Latin America, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The origins of Hezbollah’s presence in Venezuela date back to the mid-1980s, when the organization began recruiting members from segments of the local Lebanese diaspora."

He noted that Hezbollah gained greater traction following the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s consolidation of power in 2002. "During this period, Hezbollah’s presence became more visible, with reports indicating that some of its members gained access to Venezuelan state institutions, including security agencies, often through the acquisition of Venezuelan passports and legal documentation. These developments facilitated the expansion of Hezbollah-linked networks throughout Latin America, extending into Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and reportedly reaching as far as the U.S.–Mexico border."

Phares said, "Hezbollah is believed to maintain a substantial presence across Venezuela, including command-and-control elements in Caracas. Margarita Island has been frequently cited in open-source reporting as a logistical hub used for activities ranging from financial operations to intelligence gathering and alleged narcotics trafficking. Additional public reporting has suggested Venezuelan cooperation with Iranian and Hezbollah-linked operations targeting Iranian dissidents abroad, including attempted kidnappings and intimidation campaigns in the Western Hemisphere."

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The U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah lashed out at the U.S. after it captured Maduro. Hezbollah said it "condemns the terrorist aggression and American thuggery against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" and "further affirms its full solidarity with Venezuela — its people, presidency and government — in confronting this American aggression and arrogance."

The thorny challenge of how to purge the Venezuelan state and society of embedded Hezbollah operatives was addressed by Phares. He said, "One option would be to rely on a post-Maduro transitional authority that has pledged to dismantle terrorist networks. In practice, however, it is likely that U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism agencies would play a leading role in identifying and disrupting pro-Iranian networks operating within Venezuelan territory."

Matthew Levitt, a scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital that "It will all come down to what kind of regime comes next. Trump’s statements leave that wide open. There is, however, an opportunity to address the longstanding Hezbollah presence in Venezuela, and the strategic relationship between Venezuela and Iran more broadly."

Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition, and a former deputy assistant Secretary of State during Trump’s first administration, told Fox News Digital, "Among the many ways in which the Iranian regime and Maduro regime coordinated until Maduro's arrest was providing a safe haven for Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah took advantage of the lack of rule of law in Venezuela and parts of Latin America more generally to engage in money laundering connected to the drug trade. They are also believed to have used connections within the Maduro regime to secure Venezuelan passports for members of Hezbollah."

She noted that "It isn't a surprise that the plot to kidnap Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad involved taking her by speedboat to Caracas. Hezbollah and Iran knew under Maduro, they could operate with impunity there, spread anti-American propaganda, and plan anti-American attacks. Whether there are any implications for the Maduro- Hezbollah relationship now that Maduro is gone will depend on whether regime insiders are allowed to remain in power or not."