Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has confirmed to NBC Miami that the plane that landed at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida belongs to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
This comes just over a month after the disputed election in Venezuela, and the protests that ensued after Maduro declared himself the winner.
According to the Department of Justice, a Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft owned and operated for Maduro and his affiliates in Venezuela was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to Fort Lauderdale at the request of the United States based on violations of U.S. export control and sanctions laws.
In a statement by the DOJ, Attorney General Merrick Garland alleges the plane 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."
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Video captured Monday from the airport shows federal agents surrounding the plane.
Executive Order 13884, issued in 2019, prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with persons who have acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, the Government of Venezuela, including as a member of the Maduro regime, the DOJ said in the statement.
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To protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the Department of Commerce also imposed export controls for items intended, entirely or in part, for a Venezuelan military or military-intelligence end user.
According to the U.S. investigation, in late 2022 and early 2023, people affiliated with Maduro allegedly used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the illegal purchase from a company based in Florida.
The aircraft was then illegally exported from the United States to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023, the statement said.
Since May 2023, the Dassault Falcon, bearing tail number T7-ESPRT, has flown almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela and has been used for the benefit of Maduro and his representatives, including to transport Maduro on visits to other countries, the statement said.
Sources told NBC6 the plane landed in the Dominican Republic months ago, for what was believed to be maintenance, but never left again.
Venezuela's government acknowledged the seizure in a statement Monday. It characterized the U.S. government’s move as “a repeated criminal practice that cannot be described as anything other than piracy.”
The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security Miami Field Office is investigating the case, along with the HSI El Dorado Task Force Miami.
“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,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the Department of Commerce in the statement. “It doesn’t matter how fancy the private jet or how powerful the officials – we will work relentlessly with our partners here and across the globe to identify and return any aircraft illegally smuggled outside of the United States.”
"Today's actions is just a testament that HSI, as the principle investigative arm of Homeland Security, we have the expertise, we have the reach, and we have the global partnerships in order to affect change against anybody including powerful government heads that think they are untouchable," said HSI Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury.
