WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has seized a luxury plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that officials say was illegally purchased 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 turned over to federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday. The plane landed at Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport shortly before noon Monday, according to flight registration websites.
U.S. officials say associates of the Venezuelan leader used a Caribbean-based shell company in late 2022 and early 2023 to conceal their involvement in the purchase of the plane, then valued at $13 million, from a Florida company. The aircraft was subsequently exported from the US to Venezuela via the Caribbean in April 2023 in a transaction intended to circumvent an executive order banning US persons from conducting business transactions with representatives of the Maduro regime.
The plane, registered in San Marino, was widely used by Maduro for foreign trips, including trips earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba. It was also involved in a December swap at a Caribbean airstrip of several Americans jailed in Venezuela for a close Maduro ally, Alex Saab, who was jailed in the U.S. on money laundering charges. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that it was smuggled out of the US for use by “Maduro and his accomplices.”
State media footage from a December visit to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines shows Maduro, First Lady Cilia Flores and senior officials disembarking from a plane ahead of a day of discussions over a territorial dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana.
“Let this seizure send a clear message: Aircraft illegally acquired from the United States on behalf of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot simply fly off into the sunset,” Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department, said in a statement. declaration. .
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ via Getty Images
CNN first reported the plane’s seizure.
The seizure announcement comes just over a month after Venezuelans went to the polls for the highly anticipated presidential election, in which election authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner without showing detailed results to back up their claim. The lack of transparency has led to international condemnation of Maduro’s government.
Meanwhile, the opposition managed to obtain more than 80% of the voting forms – the ultimate proof of the results – nationwide. The documents show that Maduro loses by a wide margin to former diplomat Edmundo González.
The plane was previously registered in the U.S. and owned by Six G Aviation of Lorida, Florida, a broker that buys and sells used aircraft, according to several flight tracking websites. FAA records show the car was exported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and deregistered in the US in January 2023.
Six G Aviation did not immediately return messages and an email seeking comment.
In March, it flew to the Dominican Republic, along with a Venezuela-registered aircraft, for suspected maintenance, never to leave again.
Monday’s action follows the US government’s earlier seizure in Argentina of a Boeing 747-300 cargo plane that had been transferred from Iran to a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state airlines.
Federal prosecutors have also seized several private jets owned by top officials and insiders who have been sanctioned or charged in the US.
The US has imposed sanctions on 55 planes registered in Venezuela, most of which belong to state oil giant PDVSA.
It has also offered a $15 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest on federal drug trafficking charges in New York.
The Venezuelan government’s centralized news agency did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.
Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City and Goodman reported from Miami.