In an unexpected move, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, seized a private jet owned by the Venezuelan government on Thursday. This isn’t a one-off event, though. It’s the second aircraft of its kind to be seized under his watch. The first one was taken back in September, also from the Dominican Republic. Both planes were used by high-ranking Venezuelan officials for their trips.

    The seized plane, a Dassault Falcon 200EX with tail number YV-3360, had been under US sanctions and had been sitting in Santo Domingo since April 2024.  The plane had been purchased by a Venezuelan state-controlled oil company called PDVSA. However, the plane was serviced and repaired in the US multiple times. This was a huge no-no, according to US export control laws.

    This seizure tells us a lot, especially about the intelligence that the US can gather from the aircraft. The planes have given the US a big treasure trove of information. They’ve been given access to a list of all of Venezuela’s Air Force members. This includes their names, and other important details, along with receipts and flight manifests.

    But wait, there’s more. The transponders from the plane will give the US even more information. Transponders are electronic devices that transmit data, like the plane’s location, to ground stations. This would be great for tracking because pilots of the Venezuela’s Air Force could have blocked this information before.

    The US had its eyes on these planes for several years. A report from 2020 says the seized plane was used in 2019 to carry high-ranking officials, including a trip to an OPEC gathering. This trip was in the United Arab Emirates. The US had been trying to stop the flow of billions of dollars to the Maduro administration. This is important because the US has been fighting Venezuela’s corruption for years. It’s no secret that the US is doing its best to disrupt their flow of cash.

    The US first seized a plane linked to the Maduro administration in September 2024. The plane’s location was already known to officials in the Dominican Republic. A statement from then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said the plane was bought for $13 million using a shell company and was smuggled out of the US. The Dominican Republic’s Foreign Minister, Roberto Alvarez, said the US had asked that the plane be frozen so it could be searched for evidence. The Venezuelan government didn’t take this sitting down. They called the plane seizure “piracy” and accused the US of increasing aggression towards their government.

    All this adds up to a tense relationship between the US and Venezuela. The two countries have been clashing for decades. In 2020, the US Department of Justice charged Maduro and 14 other officials with major crimes. The charges included corruption, drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. Maduro’s administration denied any involvement.

Plane Seizure in the Caribbean: US Takes Another Step

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