US government seizes plane used by Venezuelan president, citing sanctions violations

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has seized a luxury jet 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 transferred to the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday. The plane landed at Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport shortly before noon Monday, according to flight tracking websites.

U.S. officials say associates of the Venezuelan leader in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane, valued at the time at $13 million, from a company in Florida. The plane was then exported from the U.S. to Venezuela, through the Caribbean, in April 2023 in a transaction meant to circumvent an executive order that bars U.S. persons from business transactions with representatives of Maduro’s government.

The plane, registered to San Marino, was widely used by Maduro for foreign travel, including in trips earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba. It was also involved in a December swap on a Caribbean airstrip of several Americans jailed in Venezuela for a close Maduro ally, Alex Saab, imprisoned in the U.S. on money laundering charges.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the aircraft had been smuggled out of the U.S. for use by “Maduro and his cronies.”

Venezuela’s government acknowledged the seizure in a statement Monday. It characterized the U.S. government’s move as “a repeated criminal practice that cannot be described as anything other than piracy.”

State media footage from a December visit to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines shows Maduro, First Lady Cilia Flores and senior officials getting off the airplane ahead of a day of discussions over a territory dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana.

“Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot just fly off into the sunset,” Matthew Axelrod, an assistant secretary for export enforcement in the Commerce Department, said in a statement.

CNN first reported the plane seizure.

The seizure announcement comes just over a month after ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor in presidential elections without showing any detailed results to back up their claim. The lack of transparency has drawn international condemnation. Meanwhile, the opposition managed to obtain more than 80% of vote tally sheets showing Maduro lost by a wide margin against former diplomat Edmundo González.

Late Monday, a Venezuelan judge issued an arrest warrant for González as part of a criminal investigation into the results of the disputed July election. The warrant was issued at the request of authorities who accuse González of various crimes including conspiracy, falsifying documents and usurpation of powers.

The plane was previously registered in the U.S. and owned by Lorida, Florida-based Six G Aviation, a broker that buys and sells used aircraft. FAA records indicate it was exported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and de-registered in the U.S. in January 2023.

Gary Gwynn, owner of Six G, declined to comment. “I’ve been instructed by the FBI not to speak to anyone,” he said when contacted by The Associated Press.

In March, it flew to the Dominican Republic, along with a Venezuelan-registered plane, for what was believed to be maintenance, never to leave again.

Monday’s action follows the U.S. government’s earlier seizure in Argentina of a Boeing 747-300 cargo plane transferred from Iran to a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned airlines.

Federal prosecutors have also have seized several private jets belonging to top government officials and insiders who have been either sanctioned or indicted in the U.S.

The U.S. has sanctioned 55 Venezuelan-registered planes, mostly belonging to state-owned oil giant PDVSA. It has also offered a $15 million bounty for the arrest of Maduro to face federal drug trafficking charges in New York.

“There is an overarching body of work and continued body of work, looking at the corrupt practices of the Venezuelan government,” Anthony Salisbury, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, told the AP. “Obviously, we are not done yet.”

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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City and Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon contributed to this report from Miami.