On February 6, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubiosupervised the final seizure of the Dassault Falcon 200 ex, Venezuelan flag and acronym YV3360, which is directly linked to the regime’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguezalthough it would also have been used regularly by other Chavista hierarchs and their relatives.
The French manufacturing plane was held in September 2024 by the Dominican authorities, during the Democratic Administration of Joe Biden. However, it was the republican government that materialized the embargo, when a Dominican prosecutor and a representative of the US forces hit the poster of “Seizure”.
“The seizure of this Venezuelan aircraft, used to evade US sanctions and money laundering, is a powerful example of our determination to demand accounts to the illegitimate regime of Maduro for its illegal actions,” said Rubio in X, in this regard.
For the Venezuelan General retired, Antonio Rivero, the confiscation of the plane by the Republican Administration says a lot about the “Clear intention” of President Trump to “go against any illicit conduction on the part of the Maduro regime.”
“There is no negotiation in sight that can distort the relevant accusations and actions to sanction, in any case, the regime of Nicolás Maduro by the Donald Trump government,” says the general, in conversation with conversation with conversation with Las Américas Diario.
A “Booty of Information”
The Dassault Falcon 200 ex is the second plane seized by the US in less than a year. It was acquired in July 2017 by the state Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to US government investigations. Since August 2019, would have violated the sanctions imposed by Trump’s first administrationupon receiving maintenance and repairs on “multiple occasions using US pieces.”
According to unofficial information, on the plane, which was mainly used by Delcy Rodríguez, his brother and president of the Chavista Parliament also traveled, Jorge Rodríguez; and other regime hierarchs, such as the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López; The attorney general, Tarek William Saab; and even the children of number two of Chavismo and current Minister of Interior, Diosdado Cabello.
These regime figures, sanctioned by the US and the European Union (EU), would have used the plane to fly to Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Cabo Verde (where they arrested Alex Saab, Maturo’s trial released by Biden), Cuba, Curacao, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic and Uruguay, in addition to Greece, Portugal, Russia and Türkiye.
Octavio Pérez, retired colonel from the US armed force and intelligence ex -official, points out that the current administration canceled the “storage” of the aircraft to repair it and be able to take it to American soil with the aim of making a “Forensic analysis” to their “flight log”, and identify the pilots and their transponders, among other things.
“What they left there (on the plane) was a loot of information to be exploited by the American services (…) can know how the plane was used, where it was, the trips it made. That is the main purpose of the plane, ”he says in conversation with Las Américas Diario.
Bonds with drug trafficking
In these aircraft, General Rivero mentions, the regime has made flights “In a very covert way” for the smuggling of gold and other strategic minerals of Venezuela, with figures such as Delcy Rodríguez, which uses its “Diplomatic character” to evade inspections in international airports.
This, he says, can be determined through the Black Dassault Falcon Box 200 exwhere the US intelligence may extract “much more detailed” information from the conversations registered in the cabin and the flight data that has been stored.
Neither the American colonel nor the Venezuelan general rule out that the Venezuelan flag, has Bonds with drug traffickinggiven the nature of the Venezuelan dictatorship. “Narcosobrino used such aircraft. It is nothing new, this is a screaming secret, ”says the former American Intelligence.
He mentions that the seized aircraft records flights between Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, and Port -au -Prince in Haiti, “Where is the base of drug trafficking” Since the flight routes for drug trafficking changed when the then president of Ecuador, the leftist Rafael Correa (2007-2017), expelled the American military base in 2009 and the Los Soles poster took possession of the routes.
The Venezuelan general adds: “It may have been used, overlapping by the diplomatic nature of non -review or non -inspection, for the reasons themselves have given some of these countries in the recession, for Drug trafficking or gold trafficking”
In addition, it is not ruled out that this has been The plane that Rodríguez used to travel to Spain in January 2020where it was received by the then Spanish transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, violating the sanctions of the EU, with a cargo of 104 Venezuelan gold bullion for the illegal sale to the Spanish businessman Víctor de Aldama. “Perhaps in the investigations carried out (in the US) it may be that it still contains information related to these trips and keeps in mind some data that can be contributed to the research that Spain has,” says Rivero.
Consequences
Although it could be considered as “One more line for the tiger”the military estimate that investigations can be used to add to the “great criminal file” that weighs on the different regime. “If it is proven that the plane was used on drug trafficking flights, to bring money to Türkiye or Russia, where money and gold bars are made, it would serve to promote more charges and Every pilot and individual affiliated with the flights will fall under sanctions”, Pérez emphasizes.
For its part, Rivero indicates that the US has a “List of airplanes” that they are being investigated for providing services to the regime, so it does not rule out that new confiscations are registered. “They are clearly identified with a monitoring process, most of them indicated of drug trafficking, capital washing and terrorism, which is still present under the support provided by the mature regime, ”he says.
On the part of the dictatorship, they dismiss that they will take some action against the Trump administration, as demonstrated by the scarce reaction of the Chavista dome and the materialization of the First two deportation flights of Venezuelans of the US. “None of the carrier, of the true dogs of the regime, has put any type of objection or pattern for what happened. They have already cleaned the hands of that plane”Pérez indicates.
“They used the strategy of keeping the photograph (with Richard Grenelll) of a ‘negotiation’ and approach, to kick the table of that photograph claiming and threatening both the Government of the Dominican Republic and that of the USA (…) They dress in ‘legitimacy’ with that photograph And they would dress in illegitimacy if they are against the seizure, finally, of the plane, which was already, in fact, lost, ”Rivero emphasizes.
