On the Radar: Maduro Trial Takes Shape as Brazil Targets PCC Finances

What’s the latest on the US case against Nicolás Maduro?

Brazil keeps targeting the PCC’s finances—but is it working?

And what does the arrest of a former Mexican governor say about the country’s fuel theft market?

This week’s top three organized crime stories in On the Radar.

1. A Trial Date Takes Shape for Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores

Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the start of the narcoterrorism and drug trafficking trial against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for June 2027. Maduro and Flores were arrested by US Special Forces at a safe house in Caracas during a January 3 raid and flown to New York to face charges.

The name Cartel of the Suns—the alleged network of corrupt officials in the Venezuelan government—has been used by prosecutors, both in the original 2020 indictment and in the Trump administration’s messaging ahead of Maduro’s capture. But the newer charges unsealed after his arrest barely mention the term, leaning instead on more general narco-terrorism and cocaine charges. 

2. São Paulo Prosecutors Target PCC Money Network

São Paulo launched “Operação Janus” this week against a group accused of laundering money for the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC). Nearly 20 people were arrested and their properties searched. Authorities also froze some 10 million reais (about $1.8 million) in assets per suspect and imposed restrictions on companies allegedly tied to the scheme. 

Operação Janus, which also reportedly implicates senior police officials, is the latest hit to the PCC’s increasingly complex financial operations that have roped in sectors as diverse as the oil industry to influencers. The group was also recently designated a foreign terrorist group by the United States. 

3. Former Mexican Governor Arrested Over Fuel Theft

Mexican authorities arrested Ernesto Ruffo Appel—the ex-governor of Baja California—on organized crime and fuel theft charges. Ruffo has been put in pretrial detention. Ruffo’s arrest is the latest sign of how far huachicol fiscal—as tax-dodging fuel smuggling schemes are known in Mexico—has reached into the country’s political and business elite and continues to fuel violence there.

Visit InSightCrime.org for more on Venezuela news and profiles, ongoing coverage of the PCC, and Mexico’s fuel-theft economy.