Feds Arrest Ex-US Green Beret in Connection to Failed 2020 Raid of Venezuela to Remove Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A former U.S. Green Beret who in 2020 organized a failed cross-border raid of Venezuelan army deserters to remove President Nicolás Maduro has been arrested in New York on federal arms smuggling charges.

A federal indictment unsealed this week in Tampa, Florida, accuses Jordan Goudreau and a Venezuelan partner, Yacsy Alvarez, of violating U.S. arms control laws when they allegedly assembled and sent to Colombia AR-styled weapons, ammo, night vision goggles and other defense equipment requiring a U.S. export license.

Goudreau, 48, also was charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods from the United States and unlawful possession of a machine gun, among 14 counts. He was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, catapulted to fame in 2020 when he claimed responsibility for an amphibious raid by a ragtag group of soldiers that had trained in clandestine camps in neighboring Colombia. He said he and others were acting to protect Venezuela's democracy after Maduro's 2018 reelection was boycotted by the opposition and condemned as undemocratic by the U.S. and dozens of other countries.

Two days before the incursion, The Associated Press published an investigation detailing how Goudreau had been trying for months to raise funds for the harebrained idea from the Trump administration, Venezuela's opposition and wealthy Americans looking to invest in Venezuela's oil industry should Maduro be removed. While then opposition leader Juan Guaido was initially enthused by the coup idea, signing an agreement with Goudreau's Melbourne, Florida-based start up Silvercorp to explore such an option, little financial support arrived and the rural homes along Colombia's Caribbean coast that housed the would-be liberators suffered from a lack of food, weapons and other supplies.

Despite the setbacks, the coup plotters went forward in a comical if tragic way in what became known as the Bay of Piglets. The group was easily mopped up by Venezuela’s security forces, which had already infiltrated the group. Two of Goudreau’s former Green Beret colleagues spent years in Venezuela’s prisons until a prisoner swap last year with other jailed Americans for a Maduro ally held in the U.S. on money laundering charges.

The arrest comes as Maduro is once again facing pressure over his increasingly authoritarian moves. Authorities on Sunday declared him the winner in the country's presidential election but a growing chorus of western states, including the U.S., refuse to recognize the results, demanding Venezuela release individual precinct tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition has presented records from 80% of the polling booths showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by a two-to-one margin.

Prosecutors in their 22-page indictment documented the ill-fated plot, citing text messages between the defendants about their effort to buy military-related equipment and export it to Colombia, and tracing a web of money transfers, international flights and large-scale purchases.

One November 2019 message from Goudreau to an equipment distributor said: “Here is the list bro.” It included AR-15 rifles, night vision devices and ballistic helmets, prosecutors said.

“We def need our guns,” Goudreau wrote in one text message, according to the indictment.

In another message, prosecutors said, Alvarez asked Goudreau if she would be “taking things” with her on an upcoming flight from the U.S. to Colombia.

Earlier this year, another Goudreau partner in the would-be coup, Cliver Alcalá, a retired three-star Venezuelan army general, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to more than two decades for providing weapons to drug-funded rebels.

Goudreau attended the court proceedings but refused then and on other occasions to speak to AP about his role in the attempted coup. His attorney, Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes, said his client is innocent but declined further comment.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment. An attorney for Alvarez, Christopher A. Kerr, told AP that Alvarez is “seeking asylum in the United States and has been living here peacefully with other family members, several of whom are U.S. citizens.”

“She will plead not guilty to these charges this afternoon, and as of right now, under our system, they are nothing more than allegations.”

Mustian reported from Miami. Tucker reported from Washington.