A former US Green Beret who was involved in the failed 2020 mission to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro has been arrested in New York on federal arms smuggling charges.
Jordan Goudreau, 48, and his Venezuelan partner, Yacsy Alvarez, are accused of violating U.S. gun control laws after they allegedly assembled and shipped to Colombia AR-style weapons, ammunition, night vision goggles and other defense equipment that requires a U.S. export license, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week in Tampa, Florida.
Goudreau was also charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods from the United States and illegal possession of a machine gun, among 14 counts.
He was being held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
Former U.S. Green Beret Jordan Goudreau was arrested in New York on Wednesday. His arrest comes a week after a federal indictment was unsealed in Tampa, Florida, accusing him and a Venezuelan associate of violating federal gun laws.
Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, rose to prominence in 2020 when he claimed responsibility for an amphibious raid by a ragtag group of soldiers who had trained in clandestine camps in neighboring Colombia.
He said he and others were acting to protect Venezuela’s democracy after Maduro’s 2018 re-election was boycotted by the opposition and condemned as undemocratic by the United States and dozens of other countries.
Two days before the raid, The Associated Press published an investigation detailing how Goudreau had been trying for months to raise funds for the harebrained idea from the Trump administration, Venezuela’s opposition and wealthy Americans seeking to invest in Venezuela’s oil industry if Maduro was ousted.
Although then-opposition leader Juan Guaidó was initially enthusiastic about the coup idea and signed a deal with Silvercorp, Goudreau’s Melbourne, Florida-based startup, to explore that option, little financial support came in, and rural homes along Colombia’s Caribbean coast housing the would-be liberators suffered from a shortage of food, weapons and other supplies.
Despite the setbacks, the coup plotters forged ahead in a comical and tragic way in what became known as the Bay of Pigs. The group was easily dismantled by Venezuelan security forces, who had already infiltrated it.
Two of Goudreau’s former Green Beret colleagues, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, spent years in Venezuelan jails until a prisoner exchange in December 2023 with other Americans jailed by Alex Saab, a Maduro ally detained in the United States on money laundering charges.
The arrest comes as Maduro faces renewed pressure over his increasingly authoritarian moves.
Airan Berry was one of two former US Green Berets along with six Venezuelan mercenaries who participated in the failed 2020 mission to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Former US Green Beret Luke Denman was arrested in Venezuela in 2020 and was part of a prisoner exchange with the Venezuelan government in December 2023.
Authorities declared him the winner of the country’s presidential election on Sunday, but a growing chorus of Western states, including the United States, are refusing to recognize the results and demanding that Venezuela release the counts from individual districts.
On Monday, the opposition presented tally sheets from 80 percent of the polling stations showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro by a margin of two to one.
Prosecutors in their 22-page indictment documented the ill-fated plot, citing text messages between the defendants about their effort to buy military equipment and export it to Colombia, and tracing a network of money transfers, international flights and large-scale purchases.
In a November 2019 message, Goudreau sent an equipment dealer the following message: “Here’s the list bro.” It included AR-15 rifles, night vision devices and ballistic helmets, prosecutors said.
“We definitely need our guns,” Goudreau wrote in a text message, according to the indictment.
In another message, prosecutors said, Alvarez asked Goudreau if she would “take things” with her on an upcoming flight from the United States to Colombia.
Earlier this year, another Goudreau associate in the coup attempt, Cliver Alcalá, a retired three-star general in the Venezuelan army, was sentenced in federal court in Manhattan to more than two decades in prison for providing weapons to drug-financed rebels.
Goudreau attended the court hearing but declined then and on other occasions to speak to the AP about his role in the coup attempt. His lawyer, Gustavo J. Garcia-Montes, said his client is innocent but declined further comment.
The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment. A lawyer for Alvarez, Christopher A. Kerr, told the AP that Alvarez “is seeking asylum in the United States and has been living here peacefully with other members of his family, several of whom are U.S. citizens.”
“She will plead not guilty to these charges this afternoon and, as of now, under our system, they are nothing more than accusations.”