Ex-US Green Beret who took part in failed 2020 raid to overthrow Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela is ARRESTED in New York

A erstwhile U.S. Green Beret who was progressive successful nan 2020 grounded ngo to region President Nicolás Maduro has been arrested successful New York connected national weapons smuggling charges.

Jordan Goudreau, 48, and his Venezuelan partner, Yacsy Alvarez, are accused of violating United States arms power laws aft they allegedly assembled and sent to Colombia AR-styled weapons, ammo, nighttime imagination goggles and different defense instrumentality requiring a U.S. export license, according to a national indictment that was unsealed this week successful Tampa, Florida.

Goudreau was besides charged pinch conspiracy, smuggling equipment from nan United States and unlawful possession of a instrumentality gun, among 14 counts. 

He was being held astatine nan Metropolitan Detention Center successful Brooklyn.

A three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery successful Iraq and Afghanistan, Goudreau roseate to fame successful 2020 erstwhile he claimed work for an amphibious ambush by a ragtag group of soldiers that had trained successful clandestine camps successful neighboring Colombia.

He said he and others were acting to protect Venezuela's populist aft Maduro's 2018 reelection was boycotted by nan guidance and condemned arsenic undemocratic by nan U.S. and dozens of different countries.

Two days earlier nan incursion, The Associated Press published an investigation detailing really Goudreau had been trying for months to raise costs for nan harebrained thought from nan Trump administration, Venezuela's guidance and able Americans looking to put successful Venezuela's lipid manufacture should Maduro beryllium removed. 

While past guidance leader Juan Guaidó was initially enthused by nan coup idea, signing an statement pinch Goudreau's Melbourne, Florida-based commencement up Silvercorp to research specified an option, small financial support arrived and nan agrarian homes on Colombia's Caribbean seashore that housed nan would-be liberators suffered from a deficiency of food, weapons and different supplies.

Despite nan setbacks, nan coup plotters went guardant successful a comical if tragic measurement successful what became known arsenic nan Bay of Piglets. The group was easy mopped up by Venezuela's information forces, which had already infiltrated nan group. 

Two of Goudreau's erstwhile Green Beret colleagues, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, spent years successful Venezuela's prisons until a captive switch successful December 2023 pinch different jailed Americans for Alex Saab, a Maduro state held successful nan U.S. connected money laundering charges.

The apprehension comes arsenic Maduro is erstwhile again facing unit complete his progressively authoritarian moves. 

Authorities connected Sunday declared him nan victor successful nan country's statesmanlike predetermination but a increasing chorus of occidental states, including nan U.S., garbage to admit nan results, demanding Venezuela merchandise individual precinct tallies. 

On Monday, nan guidance presented records from 80 percent of nan polling booths showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by a two-to-one margin.

Prosecutors successful their 22-page indictment documented nan ill-fated plot, citing matter messages betwixt nan defendants astir their effort to bargain military-related instrumentality and export it to Colombia, and tracing a web of money transfers, world flights and large-scale purchases. 

One November 2019 connection from Goudreau to an instrumentality supplier said: 'Here is nan database bro.' It included AR-15 rifles, nighttime imagination devices and ballistic helmets, prosecutors said.

'We def request our guns,' Goudreau wrote successful 1 matter message, according to nan indictment.

In different message, prosecutors said, Alvárez asked Goudreau if she would beryllium 'taking things' pinch her connected an upcoming formation from nan U.S. to Colombia.

Earlier this year, different Goudreau partner successful nan would-be coup, Cliver Alcalá, a retired three-star Venezuelan service general, was sentenced successful Manhattan national tribunal to much than 2 decades for providing weapons to drug-funded rebels.

Goudreau attended nan tribunal proceedings but refused past and connected different occasions to speak to AP astir his domiciled successful nan attempted coup. His attorney, Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes, said his customer is guiltless but declined further comment.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment. An lawyer for Alvarez, Christopher A. Kerr, told AP that Alvárez is 'seeking asylum successful nan United States and has been surviving present peacefully pinch different family members, respective of whom are U.S. citizens.'

'She will plead not blameworthy to these charges this afternoon, and arsenic of correct now, nether our system, they are thing much than allegations.'