WASHINGTON – The US government has seized a plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that was illegally bought and smuggled from the United States through a shell company in violation of sanctions and export control laws.

The Dassault Falcon 900EX was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Department of Justice announced Monday. The plane landed at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport just before noon Monday, according to flight tracking websites.

U.S. officials say associates of the Venezuelan leader used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the $13 million plane purchase from a Florida company in late 2022 and early 2023. The plane was shipped from the US via the Caribbean to Venezuela in April 2023 in a deal intended to circumvent an executive order barring US individuals from doing business with representatives of the Maduro administration.

The plane, registered in San Marino, has been used extensively by Maduro for trips abroad, including trips to Guyana and Cuba earlier this year. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that it was smuggled out of the US for use by ‘Maduro and his associates’.

State media footage of a December visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines shows Maduro, first lady Cilia Flores and senior officials disembarking from a plane ahead of talks between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana over a territorial dispute.

“Let this seizure send a clear message: Aircraft illegally purchased from the United States for the benefit of Venezuelan officials cannot fly off into the sunset,” Matthew Axelrod, assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department, said in a statement.

CNN was the first to report the seizure of the plane. The seizure announcement comes less than a month after Venezuelans head to the polls for a much-anticipated presidential election in which ruling party-loyal election authorities declared Maduro the winner, without showing any detailed results to back up their claim. A lack of transparency has led to international condemnation of Maduro’s government.

Meanwhile, the opposition was able to count over 80 percent of vote tally sheets nationwide – the ultimate proof of results. Records show Maduro lost by a landslide against former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.

The plane was also the one that took several Americans imprisoned for years in Venezuela to the Caribbean island of Canova last December, where they were exchanged for businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro’s who was jailed in the US on money laundering charges.