The U.S. government has seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's version of Air Force One after determining that the plane's purchase violated sanctions.
On Monday, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced that Maduro's Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft was commandeered from the Dominican Republic. The plane had touched down on the island for maintenance but was seized by federal officials and flown back to Florida.
“This morning, the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated.
A federal investigation revealed that Maduro's associates allegedly bought the plane from a Florida company using a shell company in the Caribbean between 2022 and 2023. The aircraft was then sent to Venezuela in April 2023, where Maduro and his officials used it for travel between a military base and other destinations.
The shell company was reportedly used to circumvent a 2019 sanction that prevents Maduro affiliates from doing business with the United States.
According to the Associated Press, the plane was used during a December 2023 prisoner swap in Canouan, where the U.S. exchanged alleged money launderer Alex Saab, a Maduro associate, for Americans who had been imprisoned in Venezuela for years.
“The seizure of this aircraft is another significant action by Homeland Security Investigations working with our domestic and international partners against the illegal activities of the Maduro regime,” remarked Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations in Miami.
In response, the Venezuelan government condemned the seizure as “piracy,” accusing the U.S. of escalating aggression toward the Venezuelan government after Maduro was declared the winner of the July election.
“Once again, the authorities of the USA, in a recurring criminal practice that could not be labeled anything but piracy, have illegally seized an aircraft that has been used by the president of the Republic, justifying its action in coercive measures that, illegally and unilaterally, they impose around the world,” the Venezuelan government stated.
They further criticized the U.S. for using its economic and military power to intimidate smaller countries, forcing them to become “accomplices” in what they described as “criminal acts.”
“This is an example of the supposed ‘rules-based order,' which, disregarding international law, seeks to establish the law of the strongest,” the statement concluded.
According to the Associated Press, 55 planes belonging to Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA have been sanctioned by the United States.
Maduro's claim to have won the July election was met with protests after supporters of his opposition discovered that candidate Edmundo González had actually won by more than a 2-to-1 margin. They collected vote copies from 80% of the nation's 30,000 polling booths to support this claim.
In August, Venezuela's Supreme Court, which is dominated by Maduro loyalists, ruled that Maduro had won by over a million votes, dismissing reports suggesting otherwise as fraudulent.
The United Nations and the Carter Center, who observed the election, stated that the results announced by Maduro and the Supreme Court were not credible.
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IRONY is when the US Government decides how a FOREIGN COUNTRY should operate and run their OWN elections. In the olden days, we’d call that kind of a Banana Republic. Puppet leaders put in place by a foreign country so that country can dictate to the first county.
TODAY — we call that the US DEMOCRAT PARTY. A Party who just put in a PUPPET LEADER RUNNING FOR POTUS – never voted in by voters, simiply “PUT IN” for the purpose of control and manipulation by an exclusive political party of decision makere —- NOT THE VOTERS
VOTE TRUMP — we can’t take another 4 more years of Obama Puppets.