Venezuela’s equivalent to Air Force One has been seized by US officials, who claim the luxury presidential jet was bought illegally and smuggled out of the country to get around US export control laws.
The white Dassault Falcon 900EX, used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores during state visits, was seized in the Dominican Republic and flown to Florida, the US Justice Department said on Monday.
Registered in San Marino, the aircraft was used extensively for foreign trips by Mr Maduro and his senior officials, including trips to Guyana and Cuba earlier this year.
It landed at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale shortly before noon after being seized, according to flight tracking websites.
Washington has said the plane, valued at $13m (£10m), was bought from sellers in Florida in late 2022 and early the following year.
Officials have said the deal was done through a Caribbean-based shell company used to hide the involvement of associates of the Venezuelan leader.
According to officials, it was then exported to Caracas through the Caribbean in April last year, in an arrangement designed to get around an executive order barring Americans from making deals with anyone involved in Mr Maduro’s government.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that it had been smuggled out of the US for use by “Maduro and his cronies.”
Matthew Axelrod, from the US Commerce Department, said in a statement: “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.”
It’s less than a month since Mr Maduro was returned to office in a widely disputed presidential poll in which electoral authorities loyal to him declared the incumbent the winner without providing any detailed results.
The lack of transparency has been widely condemned by other countries.
Opponents of the Maduro regime obtained more than 80% of vote tally sheets, which suggested he had actually lost by a wide margin to former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.
The plane was previously registered in the US and owned by Florida-based Six G Aviation, a broker that buys and sells used aircraft, according to several flight tracking websites.
It was exported to St Vincent and the Grenadines and de-registered in the US in January 2023, according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records.
Read more:
Opposition leader comes out of hiding
UK halts some arms sales to Israel
Far-right party wins German state poll
In March, it flew to the Dominican Republic, along with a Venezuelan-registered plane, for what was believed to be maintenance and had been there since.
Washington has already seized a Boeing 747-300 cargo plane transferred from Iran to a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned airlines as well as several private jets belonging to Venezuelan officials sanctioned or charged in the US.