One of the most consequential international criminal prosecutions to land in New York in years is now in the hands of Alvin K. Hellerstein, a 92-year-old senior U.S. district judge, Orthodox Jew, and one of the longest-serving active jurists in the federal judiciary.

Hellerstein has been assigned to preside over the criminal case against Nicolás Maduro, the former Venezuelan leader who was captured by U.S. special forces and brought to Manhattan on Saturday. Prosecutors have charged Maduro with a sweeping array of offenses, including narcotics trafficking, corruption, and crimes tied to terrorism.

The assignment puts a prosecution with major geopolitical reverberations before a judge whose courtroom résumé is unusually deep — and whose personal background has drawn attention in legal and Jewish communal circles for decades.

Hellerstein, appointed to the bench in 1998 and elevated to senior status in 2011, has spent more than a quarter-century on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, widely viewed as the most powerful federal trial court in the country. Despite his age, he continues to preside over major criminal matters, including terrorism-related and national security cases, maintaining a workload that many younger judges would avoid.

Maduro’s prosecution is among the highest-profile international criminal cases to reach the court in recent memory. Beyond the criminal allegations, the case carries diplomatic and symbolic weight, particularly given Maduro’s long-standing alliance with Iran and his government’s repeated attacks on Israel and “Zionism.”

Hellerstein has overseen complex financial prosecutions, high-stakes commercial disputes, and sprawling civil litigation arising from the September 11 attacks. He is known for lengthy, detail-heavy rulings, tight control of courtroom proceedings, and an insistence on meticulous adherence to federal rules of evidence and procedure.

Born in New York City in 1933, Hellerstein earned both his undergraduate degree and law degree from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps before entering private practice, where he spent decades litigating complex matters before joining the federal bench. Since then, he has remained a central figure in the Southern District’s most demanding cases.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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