US offers $15m for arrest of Venezuela’s president Maduro, indicts him on drug trafficking charges

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has been charged with federal drug trafficking crimes as part of a far reaching U.S. investigation stretching from New York to Florida, U.S officials said Thursday.

Attorney General William Barr announced the extraordinary action Thursday, saying that charges also were filed against more than a dozen other Venezuelan officials, including the country’s Supreme Court chief justice and the minister of defense.

Maduro’s government, authorities said, “betrayed the Venezuelan people to line their pockets with drug money.”

The State Department is offering $15 million for information that could lead to Maduro’s capture.

Venezuela is in the midst of one of the world’s worst economic crises and millions have fled the country.