Cilia Flores, wife of ex-Venezuelan president, seeks bail in New York drug case

Lawyers for Cilia Flores, 69, argue she needs house arrest due to heart problems and weight loss. Prosecutors call her a flight risk.

Flores's attorneys cite heart condition in bail push at New York court

Cilia Flores, the wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, appeared in a New York court Thursday, where her defense team urged a judge to release her from jail and place her under house arrest, citing serious cardiac health concerns, ABC News US reports.

Flores and Maduro have been held in New York since early January, when U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a nighttime raid. Both have pleaded not guilty in a criminal case first brought six years ago. They face potential life sentences if convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.

Defense attorneys for Flores, 69, told the court she has lost 25 pounds since her detention began at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and has been advised she may need heart surgery. Her lawyers said she also experiences "lingering lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath" and may have suffered a minor heart attack in July. They argued her conditions cannot be adequately treated in a jail setting and requested that she be allowed to live under 24-hour guard at a New York residence.

Her attorneys also alleged that Flores suffered permanent scarring after being "thrown against a wall or dresser" during the U.S. military operation that resulted in her capture. They argued she posed no flight risk, saying she is "intent on supporting her husband with her constant presence."

Prosecutors opposed the bail application, writing in a court filing that releasing Flores would present an "extreme risk of flight and danger to the public." They noted she has already been transported from the detention center to a local hospital when medical treatment was required.

Both Maduro and Flores have separately sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds of diplomatic immunity, arguing they are entitled to protection as the leader and first lady of a foreign state. Maduro served as Venezuela's president from 2013 until his capture in January.

President Donald Trump's administration has characterized the operation that led to their arrests as a "surgical law enforcement operation." Maduro has described himself as a prisoner of war and called his capture a kidnapping.

The couple and a number of alleged co-conspirators face charges of participating in a cocaine importation conspiracy targeting the United States.

Source: ABC News US