U.S. Seizes Venezuelan President Maduro's Jet Over Sanctions Violations (Sept 2024)

today a pretty important Story coming out of Florida when we learned that the Venezuelan president the US government had seized a luxury jet that was used by the Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro that officials say was actually illegally purchased through a shell company and then smuggled out of the United States this is in violations of several sanctions and Export control laws we were able to hear there with an update from those leaders now talking about the Seas and why it occurred when want to go ahead and listen into that now here on live now don't mind say and spell your name yeah Anthony Salsbury s a l i s b r y special agent charged for Homeland Security investigations Miami Florida so tell us what happened what have we seeing behind you here so today we've seized a Venezuelan owned aircraft predominantly used by Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro in violation of us sanctions and other matters that were looking at into the aircraft what does that mean so today we seiz the aircraft in violation of us sanctions uh against Venezuela by the United States government are you able to explain kind of what the sanctions were so it's it's the ongoing existing sanctions that the ofac has levied against Venezuela for years now and explain ofac ofac is the office of financial uh asset control so they designate certain host countries who have uh who are sanctioned not allowed to have us business us parts or us origin Parts stuff like that so Venezuela has been heavily sanctioned by the US government how did this happen so from what I understand and the plane was in the Dominican Republic yes so HSI working with our partners at the Department of Commerce Bureau of industry and security and officials um in the Dominican Republic have worked to seize this plane in violation of us sanctions and again other criminal matters that we're looking at with this aircraft how did that happen I mean did agents go down there and board the plane and take off or how did so yeah HSI has a global footprint um we have an office in the Dominican Republic we work side by side all over the world with officials including officials in the Dr so yeah um HSI will use its footprint to enforce its criminal priorities all over the world did this happen that you got win that hey his plane is coming to the Dominican Republic that's a place where we can we can see yeah so again HSI Miami's got long-standing investigations in the Maduro Maduro regime going back years we've seized um over two start that one again start that one again ask me that question again sir I forgot forgot what the question was um did we know about how did we know about that's it did you know that that someone was coming in with the plane and that you'd be there to just be able to grab it so HSI Miami has long-standing investigations into the Maduro regime we've disrupted the flow of over $2 billion and indicted over 30 members of the Maduro regime Associates and facilitators so we are constantly looking at the Corrupt Practices and illegal activities of the Maduro regime what is this kind of what message does this put out there in the world it says that HSI and its Partners have the global reach to impact anyone including sorry let's try ask me that again what what message does this send out there it says that HSI Miami HSI and the whole and its Partners have the expertise the global reach and the Partnerships to impact anyone including heads of state who think they're Untouchable what was this plane used for can of talk about where it's been what it's been used for yeah so this plane was predominantly utilized by Nicholas Maduro uh numerous State visits it's traveled to numerous countries on state visits with Nicholas Maduro um it's been utilized for a lot of official business for Venezuelan government and and given the current climate right now with Venezuela what is the message Mage that you're sending to the Venezuelan government so again that that the United States and particularly HSI and its Partners will continue to investigate the Corrupt Practices of any regime anywhere in the world including Venezuela anything on the horizon that's coming up regarding Nicholas Maduro and Venezuela so again our our investigations are Broad and they're ongoing and we've had substantial investigations today is just one more success and we have lots more pending have you heard from the Venezuelan government since this happened we have not are you expecting to uh I don't expect HSI Miami to but there will be so the plane has been seized it will move into forfeiture proceedings and will'll allow for that kind of coordination and communication going into forfeiture proceedings does that mean you'd be able to sell it and use that money for something else or so again when uh the plane's been seized it'll move into forfeiture and if it's officially forfeiture then yes then it would be looked to possibly be liquidated and sold then that money could be used for investigations for it would yeah the money would be going into the governmental forfeiture funds anything else to add no Doug anything thank you I appreciate it appreciate it thanks for your time if you can stand there just for one second he just going to get a quick to Sean um and as we just heard there we were getting that latest update I do want to show you some video that is the Venezuelan president that you're seeing there on your screen right now but we do know that the US government has seized that luxury jet again as he was saying was used in several capacities professionally for the company for the country I should say as well this say the US government though is saying that it was illegally purchased through a shell company and then smuggled out of the United States in violation of the sanctions and Export control laws the plane was transported to Fort Lauderdale Florida earlier this morning after as you heard there it was seized in the Dominican Republic the plane though which is believed to be a falcon 900 is described as an equivalent to Air Force One worth roughly $13 million