Florida Man Admits Violating US Sanctions Against Venezuelan Minister - Justice Dept.

Umer Jamshaid Published November 27, 2019 | 01:10 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) Florida resident Victor Mones Coro pleaded guilty to illegally chartering flights for a Venezuelan government official in violation of US drug trafficking sanctions, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

"Coro pled guilty today to participating in a conspiracy with former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah and Venezuelan businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello, among others, to violate and evade sanctions," the department said in a press release.

El Aissami, who now serves as Venezuela's minister of industry and national production, was designated as a drug trafficker by the US Treasury in 2017.

For more than two years beginning in February 2017, Mones Coro conspired to evade the sanctions by providing travel services, including private jet charters, to El Aissami and Lopez Bello, as well as their relatives and associates, the release added.

El Aissami and Lopez Bello paid for these services at times through intermediaries who delivered bulk cash in Venezuela, according to the release.