When deposed Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro makes his first appearance in a New York courtroom Monday to face US drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by another Latin American strongman toppled by US forces: Panama's Manuel Noriega. Maduro was captured Saturday, 36 years to the day after Noriega was removed by American forces. And as was the case with the Panamanian leader, lawyers for Maduro are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of foreign state, which is a bedrock principle of international and US law. It's an argument that is unlikely to succeed and was largely settled as a matter of law in Noriega's trial, legal experts said. Although Trump's ordering of the operation in Venezuela raises constitutional concerns because it wasn't authorised by Congress, now that Maduro is in the US, courts will likely bless his prosecution because, like Noriega, the US doesn't recognise him as Venezuela's .