US Seizes Second Venezuelan Government Plane In The Dominican Republic
The Trump administration on Thursday seized another aircraft linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, this time in the Dominican Republic. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally oversaw the operation during his visit to Santo Domingo, as American officials affixed a seizure warrant to the Dassault Falcon 200.
Carrying out the seizure required that Rubio sign off on a waiver to a freeze that President Donald Trump imposed on foreign aid to pay more than $230,000 in storage and maintenance fees, according to a State Department document obtained by The Associated Press.
It also required approval by the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the plane was used by a Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company facing sanctions. An investigation showed the company bought the plane in the U.S. in 2017, sent it to Venezuela and it was serviced multiple times using American parts, the department said.
The seizure of the plane comes just a week after President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, visited Caracas and met with Maduro to discuss the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the United States. Grenell returned with six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela.
The U.S. seized another of Maduro’s planes from the Dominican Republic in September 2024.
