WASHINGTON – The U.S. government has seized a plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that officials say was illegally purchased through a missile 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 placed in the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday.
U.S. officials say the Venezuelan leader’s associates used a Caribbean shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane, which was valued at $13 million at the time, from a company in Florida. The plane was exported from the United States via the Caribbean Sea to Venezuela in April 2023 and was intended to evade an executive order barring Americans from doing business with the Maduro regime.
The San Marino-registered plane has been used extensively by Maduro for foreign travel, including visits to Guyana and Cuba earlier this year.
Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export protection at the Commerce Department, said in a statement: “Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally obtained from the United States cannot simply fly off into the sunset for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials.” .
CNN was the first to report on the seizure of the plane.
The confiscation announcement came a month after Venezuelans went to the polls for a long-awaited presidential election, in which electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner without providing any detailed results to back up their claims. The lack of transparency has led to international condemnation of Maduro’s government.
Meanwhile, the opposition managed to get more than 80% of the votes, which is considered the main evidence of the results nationwide. The faction said the documents show Maduro lost by a wide margin to former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.
It was also the plane that took several Americans jailed in Venezuela for years to the Caribbean island of Canuan last December, where they were exchanged for a close Maduro ally, businessman Alex Saab, who is in prison in the United States on money laundering charges.
In March, he flew a Venezuelan-registered plane to the Dominican Republic for what was believed to be maintenance and never to leave again.
The US imposed sanctions on 55 aircraft registered in Venezuela belonging to the state oil giant PDVSA.
A $15 million reward is also being offered for Maduro’s capture in New York on federal drug-trafficking charges.
The Venezuelan government’s centralized press office did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking comment on Monday.