US government seizes Venezuelan president’s plane, citing sanctions violations

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has seized a plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, officials say, which was illegally acquired through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States in violation of sanctions and export control laws.

The Dassault Falcon 900EX was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday. According to flight tracking websites, the plane landed at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport just before noon on Monday.

U.S. officials say that in late 2022 and early 2023, confidants of the Venezuelan president used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the purchase of the plane, then valued at $13 million, from a Florida company. The plane was then exported from the U.S. to Venezuela via the Caribbean in April 2023. The goal of this transaction was to circumvent an executive order prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in business transactions with representatives of the Maduro regime.

The plane, registered in San Marino, has been used frequently by Maduro for international travel, including trips to Guyana and Cuba earlier this year. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the plane was smuggled out of the United States for use by “Maduro and his cronies.”

State media footage from a visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in December shows Maduro, First Lady Cilia Flores and senior officials disembarking from a plane ahead of a day of talks over a territorial dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana.

“This seizure should send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired by the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot simply fly off into the sunset,” Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export controls at the Commerce Department, said in a statement.

CNN was the first to report on the seizure of the aircraft.

The announcement of the seizure came less than a month after Venezuelans went to the polls for a much-anticipated presidential election in which pro-government electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but failed to provide any detailed results to back up their claim. The lack of transparency has drawn international criticism of Maduro’s government.

Meanwhile, the opposition managed to capture more than 80 percent of the ballot papers nationwide – which are considered the ultimate proof of the election result. The documents, according to the group, show that Maduro lost by a large margin to former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.

Last December, this plane also transported several Americans who had been imprisoned in Venezuela for years to the Caribbean island of Canouan. There they were exchanged for a close ally of Maduro, businessman Alex Saab, who is imprisoned in the United States for money laundering.

In March, it flew to the Dominican Republic for what was believed to be a maintenance operation along with a Venezuelan-registered aircraft and never left the location again.

Monday’s action follows the US government’s previous seizure of a Boeing 747-300 cargo plane in Argentina that had been transferred from Iran to a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state airline.

Federal prosecutors have also seized several private jets belonging to high-ranking government officials and insiders who have either been sanctioned or indicted in the United States.

The US has imposed sanctions on 55 aircraft registered in Venezuela, most of which belong to the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

A $15 million bounty has also been offered for Maduro’s arrest so that he can face drug trafficking charges in New York.

The Venezuelan government’s central press office did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on Monday.

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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City and Goodman from Miami.