The United States has seized the plane of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after determining that the acquisition violated US sanctions, among other criminal concerns. The US flew the plane to Florida on Monday, according to two US officials.
It is the latest development in the long-standing relationship between the US and Venezuela, and the seizure in the Dominican Republic marks an escalation as the US continues to investigate what it considers corrupt practices by the Venezuelan government.
The plane has been described by officials as the Venezuelan equivalent of Air Force One and has been featured on previous state visits by Maduro around the world.
“It sends a message all the way up,” one US official told CNN. “Seizing the plane of a foreign head of state is unheard of for criminal matters. We are sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above US sanctions.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that “the Department of Justice seized an aircraft allegedly illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies.”
The plane was purchased from a company in Florida, the Justice Department said, and was illegally exported in April 2023 from the United States to Venezuela via the Caribbean.
The plane, a Dassault Falcon 900EX, has since been used to fly “almost exclusively to and from military bases in Venezuela,” the Justice Department said, and has been used for Maduro’s international travel.
CNN has reached out to the Venezuelan Government and the US State Department for comment.
The situation in Venezuela has implications for US politics as millions of people have fled the country, many choosing to move to the US-Mexico border.
For years, US officials have sought to disrupt the flow of billions of dollars to the regime. Homeland Security Investigations – the federal government’s second largest investigative agency – has seized dozens of luxury vehicles, among other assets, going to Venezuela.
“The plane was seized for violating US sanctions with Venezuela and other criminal issues that we are still looking at with regard to this plane,” Anthony Salisbury,
Special Agent, Homeland Security Investigations told CNN.
A high-ranking official from the Dominican Republic told CNN that Maduro’s plane was already in Dominican territory where it was undergoing maintenance when it was seized by US authorities. The source added that the government had no record of Maduro’s private plane being in the country until it was seized.
U.S. officials are cooperating with the Dominican Republic, which notified Venezuela of the seizure, according to one U.S. official.
Multiple Federal agencies were involved in the seizure, including Homeland Security Investigations; Trade agent, Bureau of Industry and Security; and the Department of Justice.
One of the next steps, when it arrives in the US, will be to try to seize it, which means that the Venezuelan government has the opportunity to petition it, and collect evidence from the plane.
The US recently put pressure on the Venezuelan government to “immediately” release specific data on the presidential election, citing concerns about the credibility of Maduro’s victory.
Earlier this year, the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in response to the Maduro government’s failure to allow “inclusive and competitive elections” to take place.
Following Maduro’s controversial re-election on July 28, Venezuela suspended commercial flights to and from the Dominican Republic.
Federal agencies, including HSI, have long pursued the Venezuelan government on corruption issues. In recent years, HSI has intercepted $2 billion in illegal proceeds or resources from the Venezuelan government, including judgments, seizures, liquidation of bank accounts, according to one US official.
In March 2020, the US Department of Justice charged Maduro, along with 14 current and former Venezuelan officials, with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption.
“For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with (Colombian left-wing guerrilla group) FARC, causing large amounts of cocaine to enter and harm American communities,” Attorney General William Barr said. in time.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or indictment.
In 2017, two nieces of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, were sentenced to 18 years in prison by a federal court in New York City for trying to smuggle up to 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States on a private jet; both were later released by the United States in a prisoner exchange in 2022.
“We see these officials and the Maduro regime largely fleecing Venezuelans for their own benefit,” the US official said. “You have people who can’t buy a loaf of bread there, and then you have the president of Venezuela riding a high-class private jet.”
Poor economic conditions, food shortages and limited access to health care have pushed more than 7.7 million people to flee Venezuela, marking the largest displacement in the Western Hemisphere.
CNN’s Denise Royal, Stefano Pozzebon and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting.
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