Cilia Flores, the wife of former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, is asking a federal judge in New York to release her from jail while she awaits trial, arguing that her health has deteriorated sharply in U.S. custody and that her lawyers believe she may have suffered a minor heart attack this summer.

In a motion filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Flores’ attorneys said the 69-year-old former first lady has developed serious cardiac problems since her detention and has been advised to undergo a cardiac catheterization that could lead to additional procedures.

The lawyers are asking that she be allowed to live under home confinement with an unusually restrictive security arrangement that would include 24-hour armed guards, GPS monitoring, video surveillance and a monitored telephone line. Prosecutors oppose her release.

Flores is charged with conspiracy to import cocaine and two firearms-related counts. She is not charged in the narcoterrorism conspiracy count against Maduro. Both have denied wrongdoing.

The filing says Flores experienced a 30-minute episode of intense chest pressure and shortness of breath on July 29. Her legal team, after consulting outside cardiac experts, believes she may have suffered a minor heart attack, although the motion acknowledges that no laboratory tests were performed at the time to confirm that conclusion.

Her attorneys say Flores continues to experience weakness, occasional rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, chest pain and dizziness. They also say she sleeps no more than three to four hours a day and has struggled to recover physically while housed with more than 40 other female detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

According to the motion, Flores has a history of rheumatic valve disease, mild stenosis and moderate regurgitation and also suffers from asthma. A stress test performed April 23 was stopped after she developed shortness of breath and chest pressure. The test showed abnormal heart rhythms and changes on her electrocardiogram, prompting medical staff to recommend cardiac catheterization to determine whether she has coronary artery disease.

Subsequent monitoring in May recorded a 33-beat episode of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, which the defense says could place her at risk for a life-threatening cardiac event if similar episodes recur.

The filing says Flores has lost more than 25 pounds while incarcerated, lost two molars and suffers from reflux and gastritis. Before her detention, her lawyers say, she took only a monthly injection to control mitral valve prolapse. She now takes multiple medications and keeps nitroglycerin available in case of chest pain.

The defense emphasized, however, that Flores is not accusing jail doctors of mistreatment. The motion says jail staff have been respectful and that she has received “excellent care” from medical professionals both at the detention center and at the hospital. Her attorneys instead argue that the conditions of confinement are inadequate for someone facing possible invasive cardiac treatment and recovery.

Flores’ lawyers also described difficult conditions during the first months of her detention. They say she spent about three months in solitary confinement while jail officials worked to find suitable housing for her. Because she does not speak English and staff members had limited Spanish-language capability, the filing says, she was largely unable to communicate with anyone other than her attorneys during that period.

After she was transferred to the female general population, a fight broke out in her unit on Aug. 14 and guards used pepper spray, according to the filing. Flores later complained of chest tightness and used her inhaler.

Flores is asking U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to release her under conditions that would amount to a privately operated detention system inside a residence in the southern district of New York.

Her proposal calls for home detention, GPS monitoring, surrender of all passports and travel documents, random unannounced searches, a court-approved third-party custodian and a tightly controlled visitor list. The residence would be under 24-hour armed surveillance, with the security team authorized to use reasonable force if necessary to prevent her from fleeing or violating the terms of release.

The arrangement would also include a single hardline telephone subject to consensual federal monitoring, except for privileged calls with her attorneys. Prosecutors would receive visitor logs and video from the residence, and Flores would be permitted to leave only for court-approved reasons such as medical appointments or legal visits.

The defense proposes using Guidepost Solutions, a private security company whose president, Louis J. Milione, is a former senior DEA official. In a declaration attached to the motion, Milione said the company employs former prosecutors and former law-enforcement officers from agencies including the Secret Service, DEA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and New York Police Department.

Guidepost would station several armed former law-enforcement officers at the residence around the clock and install cameras, door and window sensors and alarms. Live and recorded video could be provided to the government, according to the proposal.

Flores’ attorneys also made an unusual argument that her husband’s continued detention reduces her incentive to flee. Maduro, they say, is her most significant current connection to the United States, and she intends to remain with him while both fight the criminal charges against them.

Prosecutors portray Flores as more than the wife of the principal defendant. The indictment alleges that she participated for years in the drug-trafficking operation herself.

Around 2007, prosecutors say, Flores attended a meeting where she accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and Néstor Reverol Torres, then head of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office. The trafficker subsequently arranged to pay Reverol a monthly bribe and approximately $100,000 for each cocaine flight passing through Venezuelan airspace, with a portion of those payments going to Flores, according to the indictment.

The indictment states that between approximately 2004 and 2015, Flores and Maduro worked together to traffic cocaine and maintained government-sponsored armed groups known as colectivos to facilitate and protect their operations.

Prosecutors also accuse the couple of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of people who owed them drug money or otherwise interfered with their trafficking operation, including ordering the murder of a local drug boss in Caracas.

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