In a weapons-smuggling event filed in Tampa federal court on Tuesday night, Jordan Goudreau, a former United States Green Beret, was detained. He was the leader of a failed coup attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Nicolas Maduro in 2020.
Goudreau, who is being held in a Brooklyn, New York, detention facility after his incarceration, awaits move to Florida to experience an accusation charging him and a Cuban companion, Yacsy Alexandra Alvarez, with violating U. S. arms control laws. Without obtaining a U.S. trade registration, they are accused of assembling and delivering dozens of AR-style weapons, laser places, night vision products, and other products from the United States to Colombia.
Goudreau, 48, of Melbourne, and Alvarez, 43, who was living in Colombia but presently resides in Tampa, are charged with conspiracy to offend the Arms Export Control Act and contraband items from the United States. Additionally, Goudreau is accused of, among other things, “unlawful ownership of machine weapons.”
Three weeks after Maduro claims to have won a presidential election in Venezuela that his rivals claim was riddled with fraud, the pair’s prosecution was released on Wednesday.
Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes, an counsel for Goudreau, confirmed his customer was arrested in New York but declined further comment.
Alvarez is in national prison, according to the Justice Department. Alvarez’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment right away.
As part of the crime, Goudreau, Alvarez and their co-conspirators procured weapon and military-related products through Goudreau’s Melbourne-based business, Silvercorp, and exported them to Colombia. The Colombian National Police seized some of the products.
The unregistered exports helped to fund a May 2020 attempt by Goudreau to reduce Maduro from office, which was unsuccessful. In a Goudreau-related article about Operation Gideon, the Miami Herald detailed the bungled coup effort.
If convicted, Goudreau and Alvarez face the following optimum sanctions: five years in prison for plot, 10 years in prison for trafficking, 20 years in prison for breaches of trade control legislation, and 10 years in prison for each infraction of the National Firearms Act and unlawful possession of a machine gun.
Federal regulators are also alleged to have planned to seize weapons and other military equipment that were the result of the plaintiffs ‘ alleged activities.
With guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce are conducting an investigation.
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