US court gives $153 million to Miami man jailed in Venezuela

By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami has awarded $153 million in damages to the family of an exiled Venezuelan lawyer lured back home by his father’s kidnapping only to end up imprisoned for two years on trumped up charges, Carlos Marrón is the second victim of President Nicolas Maduro’s government to leverage a little used federal law that allows American victims of foreign terror groups to seize the assets of their victimizers. Marrón in his lawsuit accused Maduro of heading a purported drug-smuggling ring involving top Venezuelan officials aligned with a Colombian rebel group that allegedly sends 200 metric tons of cocaine from Venezuela into the U.S. each year.