Venezuela’s presidential plane, Air Force One, has been seized by US authorities, who claim the luxury presidential jet was illegally purchased and smuggled out of the country to circumvent US export control laws.
The U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday that a white Dassault Falcon 900EX used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on an official visit was seized in the Dominican Republic and airlifted to Florida.
The San Marino-registered aircraft has been used frequently on overseas trips by President Maduro and his senior officials, including visits to Guyana and Cuba earlier this year.
After being seized, the plane landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, just before noon, according to a flight tracking website.
Washington says the plane, worth $13 million (£10 million), has been purchased from a seller in Florida between late 2022 and early next year.
Officials say the transactions were conducted through shell companies based in the Caribbean that were used to hide the involvement of close associates of the Venezuelan leader.
Officials said the bomb was shipped to Caracas via the Caribbean in a deal last April to circumvent a U.S. presidential order banning transactions with people linked to the Maduro regime.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the funds were smuggled out of the United States for use by “President Maduro and his entourage.”
“This seizure sends a clear message: aircraft illegally obtained from the United States on behalf of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot be allowed to fly off into the sunset,” Commerce Department spokesman Matthew Axelrod said in a statement.
It has been less than a month since Maduro was re-elected in a widely disputed presidential election in which electoral officials loyal to him declared the incumbent the winner without releasing any detailed results.
The lack of transparency has been widely criticized by other countries.
Maduro’s opponents won more than 80% of the vote tallies, suggesting that the government was actually defeated by a landslide by former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.
According to several flight tracking websites, the plane was previously registered in the United States and was owned by Florida-based Six G Aviation, a broker that buys and sells used aircraft.
The aircraft was exported to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was deregistered in the U.S. in January 2023, according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records.
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In March, the plane, along with a Venezuelan-flagged plane, flew to the Dominican Republic for what was believed to be maintenance and has remained there since.
Washington has already seized a Boeing 747-300 cargo plane being transported from Iran to a subsidiary of Venezuela’s national airline, as well as several private jets belonging to Venezuelan officials sanctioned or indicted in the United States.