After capture and removal, Venezuela’s Maduro is being held at notorious Brooklyn jail

NEW YORK (AP) — The Brooklyn jail holding Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled, some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean 'Diddy' Combs.

Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.

It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.

A throng of Venezuelan expatriates, many draped in flags, gathered on the sidewalks outside the jail Saturday night to celebrate Maduro’s capture.

The crowd cheered as the law enforcement motorcade believed to be carrying the deposed leader and his wife arrived at the jail.

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Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.

Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the US.

Convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.

Current detainees include the co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, and Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Past inmates have included crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried and longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Located next to a shopping mall in a waterfront industrial area and within sight of the Statue of Liberty, the jail has been described, at its worst, as a “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy.”

Detainees and their lawyers have long complained about rampant violence. Two prisoners were killed by other inmates in 2024, and jail workers have been charged with accepting bribes or providing contraband.