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U.S Government Confiscate Plane Used By Venezuelan President, Citing Sanctions Violations

The U.S. government has confiscated a luxury plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that officials say was illegally acquired through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States, citing violations 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.

US authorities claim that associates linked to the Venezuelan leader used a shell company based in the Caribbean to obscure their involvement in the plane’s purchase, which was initially valued at $13 million.

The plane was 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 the Maduro regime.

The plane, registered to San Marino, was widely used by Maduro for foreign travel, including on a trip earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba.

“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.

The seizure announcement comes just over a month after Venezuelans headed to the polls for a highly anticipated presidential election in which ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor without showing any detailed results to back up their claim. The lack of transparency has drawn international condemnation against Maduro’s government.

Meanwhile, the opposition managed to obtain more than 80% of vote tally sheets — considered the ultimate proof of results — nationwide. The documents, the faction said, show Maduro losing by a wide margin against former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.

It was also the plane that carried several Americans jailed for years in Venezuela to the Caribbean Island of Canouan last December where they were swapped for a close Maduro ally, businessman Alex Saab, imprisoned in the U.S. on money laundering charges.

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.

The U.S. has sanctioned 55 Venezuelan-registered planes belonging to state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

It’s 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. “We are not done yet.”

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