Donald Trump has doubled the reward for the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of fuelling drug trafficking and terrorism that brings “deadly violence” to the US.

On Thursday (7 August), Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Trump administration is now offering a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, the largest ever offered by the US for a foreign leader, CBS News reports.

Bondi claimed Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since 2013, is at the centre of an international cocaine operation linked to violent cartels, including Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Venezuela’s own Cartel of the Suns.

“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organisations to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Bondi said in a video statement. “Today, the DEA has seized 30 tons of cocaine tied to Maduro and his associates, nearly seven tons connected to Maduro personally.”

She added that cocaine from Maduro’s network is “often laced with fentanyl,” a synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in the US.

According to Bondi, more than $700 million in assets linked to Maduro have been seized by US authorities, including two private jets and nine vehicles. “Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,” she said. “He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security.”Maduro was first indicted in March 2020 on multiple federal charges in New York, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. At the time, the Trump administration offered a $15 million reward for his capture. That figure later rose to $25 million under Joe Biden, and Trump has now doubled it again, per Al Jazeera.

The move comes amid years of political turmoil in Venezuela. Maduro’s presidency has faced widespread allegations of election fraud, human rights abuses, and corruption. His 2018 re-election was rejected by the country’s opposition, with the National Assembly declaring opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the rightful president.

Trump recognised Guaidó in 2020 and invited him to the White House. In Venezuela’s 2024 election, authorities declared Maduro the winner again, but opposition groups claimed former diplomat Edmundo González had actually won with twice the votes. Both González and Guaidó have since fled the country after Maduro ordered their arrests.

“Maduro is not the President of Venezuela,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month. “His regime is not the legitimate government.”