U.S. agents have arrested two relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges they conspired to transport 800 kilograms of cocaine to the U.S., according to two people familiar with the matter. 
 
 The arrests come amid U.S. accusations that the top echelon of the government in Caracas is involved in the narcotics trade. 
 
 The two men, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, were first arrested in... ||||| The two men were charged in a sealed indictment accusing them of conspiring to ship 800 kilograms of cocaine to the United States, to be sold in New York, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. The arrests were first reported Wednesday by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. 
 
 In October, the two men approached a D.E.A. informant in Honduras and discussed moving the narcotics through that country, the person said. They later met with the informant in Venezuela and provided a kilogram of the cocaine as a sample of the drugs they intended to provide, the person said, adding that agents had made video and audiotapes of at least one of the encounters. 
 
 The investigation was conducted by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in New York, which is made up of agents from the D.E.A., the Department of Homeland Security, the New York Police Department, the New York State Police, the United States Marshals Service and the Internal Revenue Service. 
 
 American officials say that a large amount of the cocaine produced in Colombia is shipped through Venezuela before it heads to the United States and other parts of the world. 
 
 Investigators have long contended that high-level Venezuelan officials are involved in the drug trade and several officials in the armed forces and government have been publicly identified by the American authorities as having links to traffickers. 
 
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 Officials said this year that the powerful head of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, was being investigated on charges of trafficking. Mr. Cabello has strongly denied any connection to the drug trade. 
 
 Last year, a former head of the Venezuelan intelligence apparatus, Hugo Carvajal, was arrested in Aruba at the request of the American authorities, who unsealed indictments accusing him of being on the payroll of Colombian traffickers and of investing in and coordinating drug shipments. But Mr. Carvajal was allowed to return to Venezuela rather than being sent to the United States to face the charges. 
 
 Mr. Maduro has angrily responded to the American allegations, calling them false and part of a conspiracy by Washington to undermine his government. 
 
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 Asked about the arrests, the chargé d’affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, Maximilien Sánchez Arvelaiz, said, “I don’t have any information about it.” Venezuela and the United States do not have ambassadors in each other’s capitals and Mr. Sánchez Arvelaiz is the top Venezuelan diplomat in Washington. Officials in Caracas did not immediately respond to word of the arrests. 
 
 Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores were together on Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Maduro was scheduled to be in Geneva on Thursday to speak before the United Nations Human Rights Council. 
 
 Voters in Venezuela will go to the polls on Dec. 6 to elect a new National Assembly. ||||| NEW YORK/CARACAS Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady have been arrested and brought to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. 
 
 Franqui Francisco Flores-de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo-Flores were flown into New York on Tuesday, a source said. Both are nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, according to two sources linked to the Flores family. 
 
 The news may tarnish Maduro's image as he heads toward legislative elections in December that are expected to be among the most difficult for the ruling Socialist Party due to the OPEC nation's ongoing economic crisis. 
 
 The U.S. State Department says that more than half of the cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia is trafficked through Venezuela toward markets in Europe and the United States. 
 
 Maduro denies those charges, calling them a smear campaign against the Socialist Party. 
 
 The two were arrested in Haiti after contacting an undercover U.S. agent about selling 800 kg (1,763 lbs) of cocaine through Honduras, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. 
 
 No charging documents were immediately available on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Manhattan, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, declined comment. Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. 
 
 Flores, 62, whom the president refers to as the "First Combatant," is highly influential under the government of her husband. She worked on the legal team of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, working to secure his 1994 release from prison after a failed coup attempt. 
 
 In 2006, she became the first woman elected to lead the legislature, taking over that role from Maduro, and is registered as a candidate in the Dec. 6 legislative elections. 
 
 She is frequently seen at Maduro's side in public events, and on Wednesday was with him in Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Maduro is scheduled to speak at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday to defend his country's human rights record in the face of accusations he has stifled dissent. 
 
 A U.S. State Department report from March said public corruption in Venezuela facilitates drug smuggling, and it implicated high-ranking Venezuelan government officials in the trade. 
 
 The U.S. Treasury has placed nine Venezuelan officials on the "kingpin" list, which bars those suspected of involvement in large-scale drug trafficking from the U.S. financial system. 
 
 At least 100 military and police officials in the last five years have been accused of drug trafficking by Venezuelan prosecutors, according to the state prosecutors' office. 
 
 (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Eyanir Chinea in Caracas and Nate Raymond in New York.; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Shumaker)
– Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro regularly accuses the US of plotting against him, and the arrest of two family members by American authorities is unlikely to soften his stance. The two men were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday and flown to New York the same day to answer charges of plotting to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine to the US, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that the US alleges top-level government involvement in Venezuelan drug trafficking. The two suspects are Franqui Francisco Flores-de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo-Flores, nephews of Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, reports Reuters. Sources tell the New York Times that the two men approached a DEA informant in Honduras last month to discuss smuggling the shipment and were arrested in Haiti at the request of US authorities before being flown to the US on a DEA plane. Maduro—who says US accusations of government involvement in drug trafficking are part of an American conspiracy to bring down his socialist government —is due to speak about his country's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, Reuters reports. On the same day, his wife's nephews are due to make their first appearance in federal District Court in Manhattan.