FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal investigators said Wednesday they have seized 81 vehicles worth an estimated $3.2 million that were bound for Venezuela as part of a smuggling ring operated for wealthy and politically-connected people.
Anthony Salisbury, chief of the Miami Homeland Security Investigations office, said the vehicles were to be smuggled in violation of U.S. export laws and sanctions against the socialist Venezuelan government,
“This is all part of an ongoing effort to combat foreign public corruption and in particular for public corruption in Venezuela and the laundering and the fleecing of the Venezuelan people’s wealth and the stealing of the Venezuelan wealth from the national treasury for the gain of a few politically exploited, exposed people, kleptocrats and their associates,” Salisbury said.
According to Salisbury, many of the vehicles are linked to Venezuelans already facing indictments in the U.S., including billionaire Raul Gorrin. Gorrin is a government-connected media magnate wanted in the U.S. for allegedly masterminding a graft network that stole $2.4 billion from state coffers through fraudulent currency deals with Venezuela’s oil monopoly.