Feds arrest ex-US Green Beret in connection to failed 2020 raid of Venezuela to remove Maduro

A former U.S. Green Beret who organized a failed crossborder raid in 2020 to remove President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested in New York

A former U.S. Green Beret who organized a failed crossborder raid in 2020 to remove President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested in New York.

An unsealed federal indictment out of 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 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 other counts. He was being held in at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons booking records.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment. Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes, an attorney for Goudreau, said his client is innocent but declined further comment. An attorney for Alvarez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.