DNA on weapons implicates ex-US Green Beret in attempted Venezuelan coup

MIAMI (AP):

Federal investigators say they found the DNA of a decorated former US Green Beret on some of the 60 automatic weapons he allegedly smuggled from Florida to South America as part of a failed 2020 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The allegations were detailed in court papers filed days after Jordan Goudreau’s arrest last week and contain the strongest evidence yet linking him to illegal arms trafficking that facilitated the amphibious raid, which ended with several fighters killed and two of Goudreau’s former US Special Forces colleagues locked away for years in Venezuela.

The plot, exposed by The Associated Press two days before the incursion, was carried out by a ragtag group of Venezuelan army deserters whom Goudreau allegedly helped arm and train in neighbouring Colombia. Goudreau later claimed responsibility for the putsch, but said he was acting in concert with the Venezuelan opposition to protect democracy. He also said he was in touch with then-President Donald Trump’s administration, which made no secret of its desire to see Maduro gone, even though there’s no evidence US officials blessed the invasion.

After Goudreau’s arrest in New York last week, a federal magistrate initially allowed filmmaker Jen Gatien to put up her US$2 million Manhattan loft as bond to secure Goudreau’s release. But prosecutors appealed and now it’s up to a judge in Tampa, Florida, where Goudreau was indicted, to determine whether he should remain behind bars pending trial.