US veteran flees ahead of US trial over failed 2020 Maduro ouster plot
The Straits Times
Jordan Goudreau was awaiting trial over a failed May 2020 armed incursion to oust Venezuela's leader. Read more at straitstimes.com.
NEW YORK - A US military veteran awaiting trial on US charges concerning a failed May 2020 armed incursion to oust now-jailed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has absconded and is a fugitive, federal prosecutors said on March 13.
Ms Marissel Descalzo, a lawyer for the defendant Jordan Goudreau, said, “We do not know where he is.”
Goudreau, 49, was charged in 2024 with violating US arms export control laws by conspiring to ship weapons to Colombia without the required US export licences.
He pleaded not guilty and had been scheduled to go on trial in June in Tampa, Florida.
In a court filing on March 13, prosecutors with the Tampa US Attorney’s office asked a federal judge to declare Goudreau’s US$2 million (S$2.5 million) bail forfeited and enter a judgment against him in that amount.
Goudreau, a special forces veteran who ran Florida-based security firm Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility in 2020 for a maritime raid into Venezuela, launched from Colombia, that left eight people dead and more than a dozen in custody.
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