NEW YORK — 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.
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 tons of cocaine into the U.S. 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.
During the winter of 2019, a power outage plunged the facility and its inmates into a cold darkness for a week.
Recently, however, the federal Bureau of Prisons says it has worked to improve conditions.
The facility added correctional and medical staff, remedying more than 700 backlogged maintenance requests and answering judges’ concerns. Improvements were also made to electrical and plumbing lines, food service and heating and air conditioning systems.
In addition to the physical upgrades, federal authorities have tried to crack down on crime inside the lockup. Last March, 23 inmates were charged with offenses ranging from smuggling weapons in a Doritos bag to the stabbing of a man convicted in the killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.
“In short, MDC Brooklyn is safe for the inmates and staff,” the Bureau of Prisons said in September. The inmate population also decreased from 1,580 as of January 2024, which, it said, led to a “substantial decrease” in crime and contraband.
While there Maduro is likely to see some familiar faces if he is allowed out of the isolated quarters where he will initially be housed.
One is co-defendant Hugo Carvajal, the former Venezuelan spy chief who broke ranks with Maduro in 2019 and has indicated that he wants to cooperate with U.S. authorities.
There is also Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, an alleged member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang who was arrested last year in New York on firearms charges. Zambrano-Pacheco was among those caught on security video terrorizing residents at an apartment complex in a Denver suburb, an incident that Trump seized on during his presidential campaign.
The MDC has drawn more scrutiny since 2021, when the Bureau of Prisons closed its other New York City jail — the Metropolitan Correctional Center — after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there highlighted its lax security, crumbling infrastructure and dangerous, squalid conditions.
Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed.