The United States has seized a $13 million private jet believed to belong to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after the Justice Department tracked down the Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft to the Dominican Republic and flew it back to Florida.
The Justice Department alleges that between late 2022 and early 2023, the Maduro regime created a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal the illegal purchase of the 28-year-old Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft from a US seller.
The United States does not recognize the legitimacy of the Maduro government, and in 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibited U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with anyone acting on behalf of the Maduro regime.
Confirming the seizure, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the Department of Commerce said on Monday: “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.”
Axelrod added: “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 investigation to track down and seize the jet was led by Homeland Security Investigations who flew the aircraft into Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport for the two hour flight from Santo Domingo on Monday morning.
According to investigators, persons acting on behalf of Maduro managed to buy the jet from a South Florida company after concealing their links to the Venezuelan President by setting up a Caribbean-based shell company.
The aircraft (registration: T7-ESPRT) was then flown out of the United States to the Caribbean before continuing to Venezuela. The airplane was concealed from public flight tracking websites, but the DOJ alleges that the aircraft “almost exclusively” to and from a military base in Venezuela.
The Dassault Falcon 900EX typically seats between 12 and 15 passengers and has a maximum range of around 4,500 nautical miles.
I assume the authorities in the Dominican Republic co-operated with US authorities in seizing this aircraft as the US Justice Department has no legal powers in another country
Aww. The socialist doesn’t like the government taking his expensive play things? The irony.