As Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro goes to court Monday to face charges, a national security expert said the arrest is an important move in the war against drugs.

Ken Gray, a professor at the University of New Haven, says Maduro could serve decades behind bars for charges that include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices.

Maduro and his wife were captured during Saturday's strikes on Venezuela's capital city of Caracas and transported to a New York City detention center.

President Trump on Saturday said the United States would run Venezuela and its oil reserves.

Democrats argue that the president needed approval from Congress for the operation, but Gray said conducting law enforcement operations does not need approval.

"He has been running an organization that has been bringing drugs into the United States. Drugs that have killed Americans here and so he certainly is a threat to the United States, and the United States offered him an off ramp to depart Venezuela and he chose not to take that and consequently he is brought to justice here in the United States," Gray said.

Gray says strike in Venezuela sends a message to other South American counties that the United States will not tolerate drug activity in the Northern Hemisphere.

In 1990, Panama leader Manuel Noriega was captured by U.S. forces for drug trafficking. He was sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison in Miami.