US formally seizes second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Maduro
The relationship between Caracas and Washington has been marked by tensions for decades and the plane's seizure follows a similar instance in September when a Venezuelan aircraft was seized while in the Dominican Republic.
Both aircraft were used by high-level Venezuelan officials throughout their travels, according to Edwin Lopez, the country attaché for US Homeland Security Investigations in Santo Domingo. The other aircraft was flown to Florida at the time of its seizure in September, under the Biden administration.
The plane seized on Thursday, a Dassault Falcon 200EX with the tail number YV-3360, was under US sanction, Lopez said. The aircraft has been held in Santo Domingo since April 2024. Rubio, in the Dominican Republic on his first trip as top US diplomat, watched as a warrant was taped on the door of the aircraft.
The aircraft was purchased in 2017 by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA from the US, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice. Following the imposition of sanctions on PDVSA, the plane was 'serviced and maintained on multiple occasions using parts from the United States,' which violates US export control and sanctions laws.
Lopez told Rubio that thanks to the leadership at the US Embassy, they were able to get the money to fix the second plane and proceed with the seizure Thursday. It will be taken to Miami in the coming months.
'Collectively, the two planes, they give us a treasure trove of intelligence,' including a list of all of Venezuela's Air Force members 'and their personally identifiable information, receipts, and flight manifests,' Lopez explained to Rubio.
'What's going to be of value as well is the transponders,' which will allow them to get information that was blocked by the pilots in flight, he added.
CNN has reached out to the Venezuelan government for comment.
In September 2024, after the other plane linked to the Maduro regime was seized and flown to Florida, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN the second plane – the one formally seized Thursday – was being investigated in the Dominican Republic.
Authorities have known of the two planes for at least five years. A 2020 news release from the US Treasury says the plane seized by Rubio 'was used throughout 2019 to transport senior members of the former Maduro regime,' including a trip to an OPEC meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
In September, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said the aircraft seized at that time 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.' The US had requested it be immobilized so they could search it for 'evidence and objects linked to fraud activities, smuggling of goods for illicit activities and money laundering,' according to the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic Roberto Alvarez.
After that plane's seizure, officials described it as the Venezuelan equivalent of the American president's Air Force One. The Venezuelan government described the plane's seizure in September as 'piracy' and accused Washington of escalating 'aggression' toward Maduro's government.
For years, US officials have sought to disrupt the flow of billions of dollars to the regime in Venezuela. Homeland Security Investigations — the second largest investigative agency in the federal government — has seized dozens of luxury vehicles, among other assets, heading to Venezuela.
Federal agencies have gone after corruption in Venezuela but pressure from the US intensified following Maduro's controversial reelection for a third presidential term in July.
Last year, the US reimposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas sector in response to the Maduro government's failure to allow 'an inclusive and competitive election' to take place.
In March 2020, the US Department of Justice charged Maduro, together with 14 current and former Venezuelan officials, with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption. Maduro's government have long denied any involvement in drug trafficking and has dismissed criticism of last year's election results.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Pelosi: Texas proposed House lines ‘undermining the diversity that we need to have' in Congress
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a set of new House lines proposed by Texas Republicans is 'undermining the diversity that we need to have' in Congress. 'Let me just say that what you just described was the elimination of many minority seats in Texas, and that's unfortunate, because the gerrymandering that they're doing is also undermining the diversity that we need to have in the Congress,' Pelosi told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'The Lead.' On Wednesday, Texas Republicans introduced a suggested set of new House lines, placing their party closer to gaining five seats in 2026. The freshly proposed map will likely mostly directly impact lawmakers situated near or in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Austin, Houston and the southern border. Democrats are hungry to regain power in Congress after their losses last November, which have left them debating what caused them to fail in that election. Later in Tapper's show, he interviewed current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who said that his party will 'defy history when we grow the majority in the House' in next year's midterm elections. 'We have a solid, hardworking Republican majority in the House right now — and the Senate — we're delivering for the people. And I'm very excited to go out and tell that story,' Johnson told Tapper. 'I'm very excited about the midterm election. You know that we're going to defy history when we grow the majority in the House, because it's only twice in the last 90 years that a sitting president has picked up seats for his party in that first election cycle, but we're going to do it this time,' the Louisiana Republican added.
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Johnson: GOP will ‘defy history when we grow the majority in the House'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that his party will 'defy history when we grow the majority in the House' in next year's midterm elections. 'We have a solid, hardworking Republican majority in the House right now — and the Senate — we're delivering for the people. And I'm very excited to go out and tell that story,' Johnson told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'The Lead.' 'I'm very excited about the midterm election. You know that we're going to defy history when we grow the majority in the House, because it's only twice in the last 90 years that a sitting president has picked up seats for his party in that first election cycle, but we're going to do it this time,' the Louisiana Republican added. While Republicans currently hold the House, Senate and White House, Democrats are gunning for the reins of power in the two chambers of Congress after devastating losses in last November's election. On Wednesday, Texas Republicans introduced a proposed group of fresh House lines, placing the party closer to snagging five seats next year. The new suggested map will likely mostly directly impact lawmakers situated close to or in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Austin, Houston and near the southern border. Democratic strategist James Carville said in an interview earlier this month that President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is going to be seen as a 'mass extinction event,' predicting his party will gain over 40 House seats in the 2026 midterms. 'And I like the unified party — every Democrat voted against this. Every Democrat, regardless of the ideology, their ethnicity … we can all rally around this, and we can run on this single issue all the way to 2026. And Paul is right, we're going to pick up more than 40 House seats,' Carville said on CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360.'
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Nancy Pelosi appears to endorse a candidate for California governor after Kamala Harris bows out
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi appeared to endorse Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis for governor Wednesday during a CNN interview, hours after former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she wouldn't run for governor next year. 'We have many great candidates, one in particular, Eleni Tsakopoulos, whom I support,' Pelosi said, referring to Kounalakis, a fellow San Franciscan, by her maiden name. Pelosi, who has raised more than $1 billion for Democrats over the past two decades. Kounalakis, her Pacific Heights neighbor, is the daughter of Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, a longtime major Democratic donor who gave nearly $5 million to an independent committee supporting his daughter in her 2018 run for lieutenant governor. She is expected to be one of the best-funded candidates in the crowded field. A Pelosi spokesman declined to comment on the record about whether Pelosi's comments constituted an official endorsement.
