Washington: The US government has seized an airplane linked to Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, and brought it to Florida on Monday because it was bought in violation of US sanctions, according to a Justice Department statement.
The Biden administration is trying to put more pressure on Maduro because of his attempts to undermine the results of the recent presidential election in his country, White House officials said.
The Justice Department said in its statement that it had seized a Dassault Falcon 900EX owned and operated by Maduro and his partners after it had been brought to the Dominican Republic for maintenance work. The department then had the plane flown to Florida. The plane had been purchased in the United States for $13 million through a shell company and "smuggled" out of the country "for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement.
The Homeland Security Department helped the Justice Department lead the operation, one US official said. The Commerce Department was involved as well.
"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, the assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department, said in a written statement.
Video footage broadcast by CNN on Monday showed the airplane, a sleek white jet with red stripes, sitting on a tarmac in Florida.
The Biden administration has accused Maduro of trying to illegally stay in power by rejecting evidence that his opponent defeated him in Venezuela's presidential election on July 28 On Aug 1, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States was recognizing the opponent, Edmundo González, as the winner.
"We congratulate Edmundo González Urrutia on his successful campaign," Blinken said in a statement at the time. "Now is the time for the Venezuelan parties to begin discussions on a respectful, peaceful transition in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law."
On Monday, a Venezuelan court issued an arrest warrant for González. The warrant, which was issued by a court that deals with "crimes associated with terrorism," accused him of conspiracy, usurping power, and sabotage, among other things.
Maduro has long accused the United States of unfairly exercising imperial power around the globe and particularly in the Western Hemisphere, and he has criticised the Biden administration's response to the election result as another example of that.
When asked about the airplane seizure, an official from the White House National Security Council released a statement that pointed to Maduro's questionable claim of victory in the election.
"Last week, one of Venezuela's own National Electoral Council rectors further validated that Maduro has provided no evidence that he won this election," the White House statement said. "The United States, in coordination with our partners, is working to ensure that the will of the Venezuelan people, as expressed through the July 28 election, is respected."
The Justice Department said that US investigators had discovered that people tied to Maduro in late 2022 and early 2023 had used a Caribbean-based shell company to buy the airplane from a company in Florida. The plane was then illegally exported to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023, the department said, adding that since May 2023, the aircraft, which has the tail number T7-ESPRT, had been flown almost solely to and from a military base in Venezuela.
Among other things, it has been used to transport Maduro to and from other nations, the department said.
In its statement, the agency thanked the Dominican Republic for helping with the operation.
An official in the Dominican Republic said the two governments had cooperated to seize the airplane in May at the Dr Joaquín Balaguer International Airport, also known as La Isabela International Airport. Officials in Venezuela had brought the plane to the Dominican Republic for maintenance work, the official said. The United States made a request for its seizure through judicial channels, and Dominican authorities complied, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation.
The Justice Department said that the sale and export of the plane violated an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in 2019 that restricted trade between the United States and Venezuela, and that it violated export controls set by the Commerce Department.