US veteran charged with arms smuggling over failed Maduro ouster plot
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. military veteran has been charged with violating U.S. arms export control laws by conspiring to ship weapons to Colombia for a failed May 2020 armed incursion aimed at ousting socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Jordan Goudreau, 48, was indicted in federal court in Tampa, Florida, on charges of sending AR-type firearms, night vision devices, laser sights and other equipment to Colombia without the required U.S. export licenses, court records made public on Wednesday showed.
Goudreau was arrested on Tuesday in New York, court records showed. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Bureau of Prisons records showed.
A lawyer for Goudreau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goudreau, a special forces veteran who ran Florida-based security firm Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for a maritime raid launched from Colombia that left eight people dead and more than a dozen in custody, including former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa said Goudreau received a loan from an unnamed associate in November 2019, and proceeded to buy parts and tools for assembling AR-type firearms. He paid a co-conspirator, Yacsy Alvarez, to help him transport the weapons to Colombia, according to the indictment.
Alvarez is a Venezuelan citizen who resided in Colombia and was also arrested on Tuesday. Her lawyer, Christophir Kerr, said she has pleaded not guilty to the allegations and voluntarily turned herself in as soon as she learned of the charges.
In a statement broadcast on Venezuelan state television in May 2020, Denman said he and Berry were contracted by Goudreau to train 50 to 60 Venezuelans in neighboring Colombia in January of that year for the planned incursion. Goudreau told Reuters at the time that Denman and Berry were “my guys.”
Prosecutors said Alvarez sent an email to Goudreau on Jan. 15, 2020, with the subject line “Training Letter” with details of plans to hold a three-week training session for approximately 60 attendees for which they needed 60 vests with plates, 60 walkie-talkies, 60 airsoft helmets and 60 personal kits.
On March 23, 2020, Alvarez loaded suitcases into an associate’s car, from which Colombian police seized AR-type firearms, helmets, and other equipment later that day, according to the indictment.
Venezuela’s chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab requested Goudreau’s extradition days after the raid in 2020. Saab did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Denman and Berry were among several Americans held in Venezuela who were released last year in a prisoner swap with the United States, in exchange for an ally of Maduro, Colombian businessman Alex Saab.
Maduro, who has ruled Venezuela since 2013, was declared the winner of a weekend election. But the opposition says its tally shows its candidate received more than double Maduro’s support.
