{"id":49314,"date":"2024-09-02T23:32:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49314"},"modified":"2024-09-02T23:32:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T03:32:19","slug":"us-seizes-plane-belonging-to-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro-and-flies-it-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/02\/us-seizes-plane-belonging-to-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro-and-flies-it-to-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"US seizes plane belonging to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and flies it to Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The jet is equivalent to the country\u2019s Air Force One<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US officials have seized a $13m plane belonging to the President of Venezuela, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the Justice Department announced.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 900EX equivalent to the country\u2019s Air Force One, was seized in the Dominican Republic on Monday and transported to Florida, the DOJ said. Officials claim the plane\u2019s purchase violated US export control and sanctions laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the seizure, photos appeared to show federal agents collecting boxes of evidence from the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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The US has imposed sanctions in the Latin American country for years and has seized dozens of luxury vehicles bound for Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis 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 the use by Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his cronies,\u201d Attorney General Merrick B Garland said in a written statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe Department will continue to pursue those who violate our sanctions and export controls to prevent them from using American resources to undermine the national security of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plane had been at the Dominican Republic\u2019s Hig\u00fcero-Doctor Joaqu\u00edn Balaguer International Airport in Santo Domingo since May 19, according to List\u00edn Diario, a Dominican newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the aircraft arrived in the country, the Dominican attorney general\u2019s office said the plane was being detained but the reasons were not publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, the outlet reported that the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation said it was due to a judicial problem. The Justice Department\u2019s International Affairs Office worked with Dominican authorities to seize the aircraft. CNN reported that the Dominican government alerted Maduro\u2019s office of the seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela suspended commercial flights to and from the Dominican Republic on July 28 after Maduro\u2019s widely-disputed reelection. Several Western countries asked the Venezuelan government to publish voting tallies in full after Maduro claimed victory, despite evidence suggesting opposition candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez won 67 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 23 protesters have been killed in demonstrations following the election. Approximately 2,400 have been arrested, the United Nations claims. Maduro has served as the country\u2019s president since 2013. He succeeded his political ally, the left-wing firebrand Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro is accused of violating Executive Order 13884, which prohibits US citizens from conducting transactions with anyone representing Venezuela\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2022 and 2023, people close to Maduro used a Caribbean-based shell organization to conceal their involvement in the plane\u2019s illegal purchase from a Florida-based company, the DOJ alleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plane was then taken from the US to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023. Since May 2023, the aircraft has been flown from the Caribbean to a military base in Venezuela with either Maduro or his representatives on board. The Venezuelan president has also used the aircraft for international travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-range jet has been in production since 1995. It can seat up to 16 passengers. Maduro\u2019s model is white and decked out with red and blue stripes on the sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Commerce\u2019s and Department of Homeland Security are investigating the case. The Venezuelan government will have a chance to petition the plane\u2019s seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Department\u2019s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has offered a reward of up to $15m for information leading to Maduro\u2019s arrest or conviction. In March 2020, the DOJ\u00a0charged Maduro, together with 14 current and former Venezuelan officials, with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The jet is equivalent to the country\u2019s Air Force One US officials have seized a $13m plane belonging to the President of Venezuela, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the Justice Department announced. The aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 900EX… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[9623],"class_list":["post-49314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-us-seizes-plane-belonging-to-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro-and-flies-it-to-florida"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49317,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49314\/revisions\/49317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}