US seizes Nicolás Maduro’s jet and flies it to Florida

US authorities have seized Nicolás Maduro’s plane in an apparent escalation of pressure on the Venezuelan president, more than a month after his widely contested claim of victory in the country’s national elections.

US authorities confirmed on Monday they had seized Maduro’s jet in the Dominican Republic after determining it was allegedly purchased in violation of US sanctions. The plane, described by US officials as Venezuela’s equivalent to Air Force One, has been flown to Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

“This morning, the justice department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13m [£10m] through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said in a statement.

The assistant secretary for export enforcement, Matthew Axelrod, of the Department of Commerce, said: “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 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.”

The plane, a French-built Dassault Falcon 900EX with blue and red stripes and a white body, is registered in the European republic of San Marino, according to the Miami Herald. It had been in the Dominican Republic in recent months but has previously been used by Maduro for trips to St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cuba and Brazil.

Venezuela’s government said the plane’s “illegal” confiscation “cannot be considered anything apart from piracy”.

Caracas accused the US of using its economic and military power to intimidate and pressure countries such as the Dominican Republic into being “accomplices in its criminal acts”.

The seizure comes four days after the US again called on Venezuelan authorities to produce evidence proving that Maduro was the winner over the opposition candidate Edmundo González in the 28 July vote.

Washington has said there is “overwhelming evidence” that González received the most votes but Venezuelan election authorities have declined to release polling numbers, prompting unrest and a government crackdown during which more than 1,600 people have been detained.

The US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said on Thursday: “In spite of repeated calls from Venezuelans and the international community, the Maduro-controlled national electoral council has failed to substantiate its announced results by producing original tally sheets, as it did following the 2013 and 2018 elections.”

US authorities will pursue forfeiture of the plane, according to CNN. The move comes amid a broader effort to disrupt the flow of billions of dollars to the Maduro regime via judgments, seizures and the liquidation of bank accounts.

In March 2020, Maduro and 14 current or former Venezuelan officials were charged with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. The US state department has also offered a reward of up to $15m for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction.

The confiscation of the plane follows an incident earlier this year when a Venezuelan Boeing 747 cargo plane was seized in Argentina and flown to Florida. Maduro went on national television and claimed that the “evil capitalist empire” did not really want the plane, it just did not want Venezuela to have it. He said proof of that was that it was soon destroyed by “the vengeful perverse gringo empire”.