By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. military veteran who took credit for a failed 2020 raid to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro should be detained on weapons smuggling charges, reflecting his history of online searches for how to be a “successful fugitive,” federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Jordan Goudreau was arrested in New York last week on charges of violating U.S. arms export control laws by shipping weapons to Colombia for a May 3, 2020, maritime raid aimed at ousting Maduro, a socialist foe of the United States.
Prosecutors in Tampa, Florida, where the charges were brought, urged U.S. District Judge Virginia Covington to keep Goudreau behind bars pending trial, calling him a flight risk.
They cited Google searches he made shortly after the raid, including “how to run and stay hidden from the feds,” “what happens if i run from the law” and “how do you prove gun smuggling.”
Federal prosecutors believe Goudreau later traveled to Mexico and back without using normal channels that could have alerted law enforcement to his whereabouts.
Goudreau, a special forces veteran who ran Florida-based security firm Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed raid by Venezuelan exiles and some U.S. military veterans, although he did not participate.
Prosecutors in Tampa said immigration records suggest Goudreau entered Mexico in May 2020, and obtained a driver’s license and motorcycle registration there the next year.
Hannah McCrea, a lawyer for Goudreau, said her client has cooperated with investigators in the United States and lived there openly and without an alias since 2020.
“He has not fled, and he has made no efforts to evade arrest or detection,” McCrea said in a phone interview. “He is neither a flight risk nor a danger.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Stein in Manhattan on July 30 ordered Goudreau released on $2 million bond, but kept him in custody for one day so prosecutors could appeal. Covington extended Goudreau’s custody the next day.
The failed raid left eight people dead and more than a dozen in custody in Venezuela, including former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry.
Goudreau’s DNA was recovered from two rifles seized by Colombian authorities in 2020, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Denman and Berry returned to the United States in December as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Alex Saab, who is a Colombian businessman and a Maduro ally.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
