The many ways lawyers for Nicolas Maduro could try to derail the case against him

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN

Photo: JANE ROSENBERG / AFP

The case against ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro hasn't been able to move forward in the past six years.

Now with his capture and first appearance in Manhattan federal court behind him, getting to trial could take even more years, with rings of unusual political and legal battles to come.

The criminal case against Maduro is so legally complex - with his past leadership of Venezuela, the dramatic nature of proving an international narco-terrorism conspiracy and the larger national security and foreign policy implications - that his defense could attempt several different ways of derailing the case before a trial.

Maduro pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

"Not that he won't negotiate, but he will push some of the buttons first," Dick Gregorie, a longtime Miami-based federal prosecutor, said on Monday after following news coverage of Maduro's arraignment.

Gregorie had worked on the indictment and trial of Panama's Manuel Noriega almost 40 years ago, becoming one of the few prosecutors who has successfully tried a foreign fugitive who claimed he was a head of state.

The Noriega case has some parallels to Maduro's - especially in how rare it is for the US to strike a foreign coun