TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the Florida attorney general’s office is “looking very seriously” at bringing state charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The case would likely be related to immigration and drug trafficking, the governor said, speaking in Clearwater after a press conference with U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna about congressional insider trading.

“[Maduro] was obviously very involved with bringing drugs, particularly to Florida,” DeSantis said. “But you know what he would also do… He would empty his prisons and send them to America across the border. And we’d end up with some of these people in Florida.”

That charge is missing from the federal indictment of Maduro in New York, the governor said, adding that gang members of the Tren de Aragua crime organization in Venezuela ended up in Florida. The gang, born out of a Venezuelan prison, was labeled a terrorist organization last year by the Trump administration, which alleged that Maduro sent Tren de Aragua members to the United States in an act of war.

DeSantis said Maduro’s sending of gang members to Florida “is a very hostile act” that could violate state laws related to “importing the criminal element.”

In a social media post Monday, the governor indicated a state criminal case against Maduro would be brought in Miami, where the state would be alleging harm took place.

The case would likely be handled by the Office of Statewide Prosecution, a position appointed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. Uthmeier was appointed to his position last year by DeSantis, whom he previously served as chief of staff.

Before clarifying that Uthmeier’s office would run the case, DeSantis said they were looking into it together—indicating the prosecution would be closely coordinated between the two allies.

“We are looking very seriously at— and not necessarily as me, I mean, I’ll be supportive, but it’s through the Attorney General’s office that is able to bring these things—a state case against Nicolás Maduro,” DeSantis said.

When the Herald/Times reached out for more information on Tuesday, a spokesperson with the governor’s office simply replied: “Stay tuned!”

The Florida Office of the Attorney General and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — the police body likely to run a high-profile political investigation touted by the governor — did not return requests for comment.

Florida’s state Attorney General’s Office has sought recently to assert jurisdiction in notable national and international cases. In December 2024, then-Attorney General Ashley Moody announced that Florida was seeking a state arrest warrant against Ryan Routh, the man accused in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a West Palm Beach golf course, even as a federal case moved forward.

Moody’s successor, Uthmeier, similarly opened a state investigation into social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate after their arrival in Florida, citing potential rape and human-trafficking charges.

The focus of Tuesday’s conference was congressional insider trading, which the governor has little ability to control. But it’s a politically popular subject, nationally, as he terms out of office in Florida and is still discussed as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.

One thing DeSantis made clear on Tuesday, is that he seems unlikely to return to Congress.

“We need to clean both houses up there. We’ve got problems on both sides of the aisle,” DeSantis said.

He continued: “Most people that get elected actually want to do the right thing. I think that there is some idealism. But man, you get up there, it’s like a meat grinder. And they just beat that idealism out of you.”

The federal case

Maduro already faces a sweeping federal criminal case in New York, where prosecutors allege he led a decadeslong international drug-trafficking conspiracy that sent tons of cocaine into the U.S. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and builds on charges first unsealed in 2020, including narcoterrorism conspiracy and firearms offenses involving machine guns and destructive devices tied to drug trafficking.

Federal prosecutors accuse Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials of using state power and international routes — long familiar to South Florida investigators — to protect and profit from drug shipments bound for U.S. markets. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have pleaded not guilty and are expected to challenge the New York case on jurisdictional and immunity grounds, arguing that Maduro is Venezuela’s legitimate head of state and that the U.S. prosecution violates international law.

The alleged conspiracy spans more than two decades and is rooted in what U.S. authorities have described as a criminal network operating from within Venezuela’s government. Prosecutors say the scheme continued even after Maduro became president, with drugs routed through Central America and the Caribbean toward U.S. markets.

The Manhattan proceedings are being overseen by 92-year-old U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a senior jurist known for handling prominent prosecutions. The case against Maduro is considered one of the most consequential foreign corruption and narcotics prosecutions ever brought by the U.S. government, and now forms the backdrop for additional criminal proceedings announced in Florida.

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Herald/Times Bureau reporter Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.

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