The US has seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s plane – saying it was illegally bought for $13m (£9.8m) and smuggled out of the country.
According to the US Department of Justice, the Falcon 900EX aircraft was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the US state of Florida.
It is unclear how and when the plane ended up in the Dominican Republic. Tracking data showed that it left La Isabela Airport near the capital Santo Domingo on Monday, arriving at Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida shortly after.
There was no immediate comment from Mr Maduro or the Venezuelan government on the matter.
US officials say the plane was seized for allegedly violating US export control and sanctions laws.
They added that the investigation found that associates of Mr. Maduro allegedly used a shell company based in the Caribbean to hide their involvement in the illegal purchase of a plane from a Florida-based company in late 2022 and early 2023.
The plane was then smuggled from the United States to Venezuela via the Caribbean in April 2023.
The argument of US officials that the sale and export of the aircraft violated US sanctions is unlikely to have weight with President Maduro, who has repeatedly accused the US of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.
A spokesman for the national security council at the White House said the action represented “an important step to ensure that Maduro continues to feel the consequences of his poor recruitment of Venezuela”.
Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said authorities in the Dominican Republic provided the U.S. government with “tremendous assistance” in organizing the seizure.
“It doesn’t matter how big the private jet is or how powerful the officials are – we will work tirelessly with our partners here and around the world to identify and recover any aircraft smuggled out of the United States,” said Matthew S Axelrod from the media. Department of Commerce – one of the government agencies involved in the recovery of the plane.
The plane was seen flying to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas after arriving in Kingston in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in April 2023, according to data kept by the Flightradar24 website.
US officials said it then flew “almost to and from a military base in Venezuela”. It is not clear how and when the plane arrived in the Dominican Republic.
But US officials say the jet was being used by Mr Maduro for “foreign visits”.
The Venezuelan government announced in late July that it would temporarily suspend flights to the Dominican Republic and Panama next. Mr Maduro’s controversial re-election.
This is not the first time that Mr Maduro or the Venezuelan government has come under attack from US authorities for alleged corruption.
In 2020, the justice department indicted Mr Maduro and 14 Venezuelan officials on charges of terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking, among other charges.
The government department has offered a reward of up to $15m for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Mr Maduro.
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