US says it’s taken possession of a Boeing 747 that Iran sold to a Venezuelan firm and seized by Argentina forces in 2022 and captained by a ex-commander of the Revolutionary Guard

The US government said that they have successfully taken possession of a Boeing 747 that Iran sold to a Venezuelan firm. 

On Monday, the Justice Department said the American-built plane arrived in Florida and would be disposed of.

Officials said that Argentina transferred custody of the plane to the US on Sunday.

The aircraft had earlier been transferred from Iranian airline Mahan Air to Emtrasur, a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of a state-owned firm that had previously been sanctioned by the US. 

Officials said the sale was done without US government authorization, violated export control laws and also improperly benefited Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. 

‘The Justice Department is committed to ensuring that the full force of U.S. laws deny hostile state actors the means to engage in malign activities that threaten our national security,’ Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the head of the department’s national security division, said in a statement. 

The aircraft had earlier been transferred from Iranian airline Mahan Air to Emtrasur, a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of a state-owned firm that had previously been sanctioned by the US

In response, Venezuela´s government called the transfer a ‘shameful rapacious operation’ and vowed to ‘take all actions to restore justice and achieve the restitution of the aircraft to its legitimate owner.’ 

The administration for the President of Venezuela, Nicole Maduro, went on to accuse the US and Argentine government of ‘collusion’, violating civil aeronautics regulations, ‘as well as the commercial, civil and political rights’ of Emtrasur. 

The plane was originally detained in June 2022 by Argentine law enforcement before US officials moved several weeks later to take possession of it. 

The Justice Department went on to identify the registered captain of the plane as an ex-commander for the Revolutionary Guard. 

Officials also cited a recovered flight log that shows additional flights that were not approved by the US government after the transfer to Emtrasur to locations including Moscow, Caracas and Tehran. 

Mahan Air has denied any ties to the aircraft, and Venezuela has demanded that Argentine authorities release the plane. 

‘This seized airplane’s arrival in the United States is a powerful example of our unceasing efforts to prevent Iran and its proxies from leveraging and profiting from U.S. technology,’ Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement’s Matthew S. Axelrod said in a press release. 

The matter is currently being investigated by the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security’s Miami Field Office and the FBI Miami Field Office, the press release said.