US Seizes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s Plane

Why buy your own plane when you can just take one for free...... seizure also looks like US govt spasm to try to intimidate & terrorize foreign leaders from travelling.

This is a re-post of a mainstream CNN story, so, it´s full of attempts to justify stealing airplanes, trying to initimidate and terrorize foreign leaders from traveling abroad.

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Exclusive: US seizes Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic

Updated 1:33 PM EDT, Mon September 2, 2024

US seizes Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic

CNN — 

The United States has seized Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane after determining that its acquisition was in violation of US sanctions, among other criminal issues. The US flew the aircraft to Florida on Monday, according to two US officials.

It’s the latest development in what has long been a frosty relationship between the US and Venezuela, and its seizure in the Dominican Republic marks an escalation as the US continues to investigate what it regards as corrupt practices by Venezuela’s government.

The plane has been described by officials as Venezuela’s equivalent to Air Force One and it  has been pictured in previous state visits by Maduro around the world.

“This sends a message all the way up to the top,” one of the US officials told CNN. “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions.” No one is above the law means US government employees and US government agents and contractors can steal planes, cars, houses, whatever.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that “the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege 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 plane was purchased from a company in Florida, the Justice Department said, and was illegally exported in April 2023 from the United States to Venezuela through the Caribbean.

The plane, which is a Dassault Falcon 900EX, has since been used to fly “almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela,” the Justice Department said, and has been used for Maduro’s international travels.

CNN has reached out to the Venezuelan Government and the US State Department for comment.

The situation in Venezuela has had implications for US politics as millions flee the country, many of whom have chosen to migrate to the US-Mexico border.

For years, US officials have sought to disrupt the flow of billions of dollars to the regime. Homeland Security Investigations — the second largest investigative agency in the federal government — has seized dozens of luxury vehicles, among other assets, heading to Venezuela.

“The plane was seized in violation of US sanctions with Venezuela and other criminal matters that we’re still looking at regarding this aircraft,” Anthony Salisbury,
Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations told CNN.

The plane had been in the Dominican Republic in recent months. US officials didn’t disclose why, but it presented an opportunity for US officials to seize the aircraft.

Multiple federal agencies were involved in the seizure, including Homeland Security Investigations; Commerce agents, the Bureau of Industry and Security; and the Justice Department.

US officials worked closely with the Dominican Republic, which notified Venezuela of the seizure, according to one of the US officials.

One of the next steps, upon arriving to the US, will be pursuing forfeiture, meaning the Venezuelan government has a chance to petition for it, and collecting evidence from the aircraft.

The US recently placed pressure on the Venezuelan government to “immediately” release specific data regarding its presidential election, citing concerns about the credibility of strongman leader Maduro’s victory.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech during a rally to celebrate the results of last month's presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 28, 2024.

Fausto Torrealba/Reuters

Earlier this 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.

After the controversial reelection of Maduro on July 28, Venezuela suspended commercial flights to and from the Dominican Republic.

Federal agencies, including HSI, have long been going after the Venezuelan government over corruption concerns. Over recent years, HSI has disrupted $2 billion worth of the Venezuelan government’s illicit proceeds or resources, including judgements, seizures, liquidation of bank accounts, according to one of the US officials.

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.

“For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with [Colombian left-wing guerrillaa] the FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities.,” then-Attorney General William Barr said at the time.

The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction.

In 2017, two nephews of Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores were sentenced to 18 years in prison by a federal court in New York City for trying to smuggle up to 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States on a private jet; the two were later released by the United States in a prisoners’ exchange in 2022.

“We see these officials and the Maduro regime basically fleecing the Venezuelan people for their own gain,” the US official said. “You have people who can’t even afford a loaf of bread there and then you have the president of Venezuela jetting around in a high-class private jet.”

People from the Biden regime have been fleecing the American people for their own gain….. a US Dept. of Justice investigation report and US a US Congress impeachment report both show the Bidens have fleeced tens of millions of dollars in money from the American people for their own gain.

Poor economic conditions, food shortages and limited access to health care have pushed more than 7.7 million people to flee Venezuela, marking the largest displacement in the Western Hemisphere.

Millions of born-in-the-USA Americans flee or have been pushed out of the USA each decade, decade after decade, for other countries. And they never come back to the USA. The US expat community is now estimated to be over 20,000,000 Americans.

CNN’s Denise Royal, Stefano Pozzebon, Priscilla Alvarez and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting.

If the alleged crime is a close election - or some sort of election interference - then when will foreign countries start seizing US government owned planes like Air Force One based on the fact that elections as recently as 2000 and 2020 appear to have been rigged…. plus data beyond any shadow that there were attempts to rig the 2016 US Presidential election.

Foreign countries can now state that Trump actually won the 2020 election and then seize Air Force One ….. using the logic (if you can call it that) used by US government officials in seizing the Venezuelan President´s plane.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/02/politics/us-seizes-venezuela-president-maduros-airplane

CNN also neglects to mention that tens of thousands of American oil refinery jobs depend on getting large amounts of oil (to refine into gas) from Venezuela. Or Russia.

(Long story on the different grades of oil and how different refineries are made to refine only certain grades of oil….. Saudi ¨light sweet crude¨ is the most well known grade of oil. Venezuelan and Russian oil are of a different grade of oil than light sweet crude… long story. Long story short, the American people can say bye bye to yet more tens of thousands of high paying jobs.)