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The U.S. government has seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's Dassault 900 EX for alleged sanctions violations. The business jet, reportedly used by Maduro as his version of Air Force One, was flown by American officials from the Dominican Republic to Fort Lauderdale.
“This morning, 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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a DOJ news release on Monday.
The Department of Justice stated that the plane was bought from an unnamed South Florida company. It is registered as T7-ESPRT under the registry of San Marino, a tiny landlocked country surrounded entirely by Italy in its northeastern area. Registration data was not available from the San Marino authority. San Marino allows anyone from a "non-blacklisted country" to register an aircraft as long as they have a resident agent in the country.
