The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn houses hundreds of detainees awaiting trial. They include high-profile people like Luigi Mangione and rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine.

Notable names routinely pass through the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.Leila Register / NBC News; Getty Images; @realDonaldTrump via Truth Social

The ornate neoclassical facade of Venezuela`s palm tree-lined Miraflores Palace - the seat of power held by Nicolás Maduro for more than a decade - is in stark contrast to where, now deposed, he is currently confined: a drab, warehouse-looking lockup in Brooklyn, New York, saddled with violence and complaints of poor sanitary conditions.

Following Maduro`s dramatic capture in a U.S. military raid over the weekend along with his wife, Cilia Flores, the Metropolitan Detention Center is expected to house the couple while they await trial on cocaine conspiracy charges.

But they`re far from the only high-profile detainees who have been sent to the sprawling federal jail, also known as MDC Brooklyn.

Maduro and his wife are sharing the towering complex - which holds over 1,300 men and women who may face charges in federal courts in New York City - with the likes of Luigi Mangione, who is charged in the Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024, and Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to racketeering-related charges and turned himself in Tuesday to serve a three-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release.

"It`s a tough environment," former MDC Brooklyn warden Cameron Lindsay said of the facility, which is in the borough`s industrial waterfront neighborhood of Sunset Park. "It`s very stark and austere and is a far, far cry from anything luxurious. It is a very complicated, busy jail, and everything is dictated by policy, procedure and practice."

Over the years, MDC Brooklyn detainees have included a wide variety of notable defendants in custody in connection with federal crimes. Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was sentenced last year for his role in a drug trafficking operation, was locked up at MDC Brooklyn after his extradition in 2022. He was later moved to a federal prison in West Virginia before President Donald Trump pardoned him late last year.

Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was found guilty last year of two counts of transporting former girlfriends for prostitution and sentenced to 50 months in prison, was detained at MDC Brooklyn before and during his trial in Manhattan.

Others who have been housed at the jail include R&B singer R. Kelly, who was convicted in 2021 on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in Brooklyn; convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried; former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli; longtime Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted on sex trafficking charges; former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was detained for nearly 90 days on a civil disobedience charge in 2001.

MDC Brooklyn, which opened in 1994, has drawn attention for what inmate advocates and politicians have described as a hostile and substandard environment, ranging from complaints of extended lockdowns to inadequate medical care.

In March, about two dozen MDC Brooklyn inmates and detainees were charged in 12 separate incidents of violent assault and contraband smuggling, the Justice Department said. The defendants included a former correctional officer and a person accused of being an MS-13 gang associate.

In 2024, nine MDC Brooklyn inmates were charged in five separate cases of murder, accused murder or assault.

"Violence will not be tolerated in our federal jails," said Breon Peace, then the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

There were also protests at the jail after an electrical fire knocked out power to the building in January 2019, plunging it into days of darkness and freezing temperatures. In 2020, the jail had the first case of a federal inmate`s testing positive for Covid-19.

Combs` legal team highlighted the conditions at the jail in a legal filing in 2024 as it unsuccessfully sought to get Combs, the founder of Bad Boys Records, out on bail, arguing that several courts have found that MDC Brooklyn is "not fit for pre-trial detention."

Maxwell`s lawyers also objected to her treatment at the jail in court filings, saying she was placed in solitary confinement and under restrictive surveillance 24 hours a day. That was on top of her complaints that she was subjected to the smell of "raw sewage" and vermin droppings falling from air vents.

Maxwell came under extra security after Epstein had died by suicide in 2019 in a federal lockup in Manhattan, which was subsequently closed.

Lindsay, MDC Brooklyn`s warden from 2007 to 2009, said he would expect Maduro and his wife to be similarly held in solitary conditions, as opposed to general housing, where they could congregate with other detainees.

"Arguably, this is more sensitive than even Epstein," said Lindsay, who now works as a consultant and expert witness in jail litigation. "It`s probably even more critical because of the geopolitical implications and how the entire world is watching. So it is 100% absolutely imperative that the government, specifically the Federal Bureau of Prisons, keeps Maduro and his wife safe."

The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about Maduro`s and Flores` detainment at MDC Brooklyn.

Craig Rothfeld, a prison consultant and the founder of Inside Outside Ltd., whose clients have included Mangione and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein, said it`s not unusual for high-profile detainees to be held in solitary conditions for at least the first 48 hours or even longer while they are medically evaluated and their long-term housing is determined.

Lindsay said that in placing a new detainee at MDC Brooklyn, staff members also assess whether a person may be affiliated with a gang or has connections in the jail that are dangerous.

Female detainees are separately held in what is known as the East Building of the complex.

"In the case of women, you`re just in a dorm, and they`re going to need to make a decision whether or not they have her in the dorm with other female inmates," Rothfeld said of Flores, "or they need to keep her in a more secure area where she`s in her own cell."

Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty at an initial court appearance Monday in Manhattan, where they were flown by helicopter from Brooklyn.

Detainees are permitted legal visits daily at MDC Brooklyn, Rothfeld said.

"To the extent he has legal visits or legal video teleconference calls, he would be outside of his cell," he said of Maduro.

But other than meetings with attorneys or the necessary transfer to Manhattan for his court hearings, Lindsay said he would expect Maduro to be as isolated as possible. His next court date is March 17.

"Absolutely no interaction or contact with any other detainee within the facility," Lindsay said. "That would be my hard and fast rule No. 1."

 

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By Erik Ortiz/NBC