DNA on weapons implicates ex-U.S. Green Beret in attempted Venezuelan coup, federal officials say

MIAMI (AP) — Federal investigators say they found the DNA of a decorated former U.S. 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 U.S. 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 neighboring 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 U.S. 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 $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.

Prosecutors arguing that Goudreau is a flight risk presented what they called “overwhelming” evidence that he knowingly violated U.S. arms control laws, and that he tried to hide after learning he was under investigation. Those efforts including moving his bank accounts into cryptocurrency, obtaining a Mexican driver’s license and allegedly sneaking back and forth across the U.S. border into Mexico and Canada, where he was born and lived until emigrating and enlisting in the U.S. Army.

Internet searches on Goudreau’s cell phone allegedly included “how to run and stay hidden from the feds,” “how to be a successful fugitive on the run” and “what happens if I run from the law.”

Although the 48-year-old has no criminal record and was a three-time Bronze Star recipient in Iraq and Afghanistan, prosecutors argued he was both a danger to the public and a flight risk because of his firearms expertise, access to a sailboat at an Air Force base in Tampa and $10,000-a-month in military retirement disability income.

“Goudreau thoroughly researched, and acted on, illegally leaving the United States and evading law enforcement detection,” prosecutors wrote. “Now that he has been charged with serious violations that carry significant prison sentences, Goudreau has every incentive and wherewithal to flee — this time for good.”

Gustavo Garcia-Montes, an attorney for Goudreau, pushed back on prosecutors’ portrayal of his client and pointed out that Goudreau voluntarily met with federal investigators prior to his arrest.

“He is attending school, has attended court several times, depositions, and lives at an air force base,” Garcia-Montes said. “He is not a flight risk.”

Prosecutors said evidence to be presented at Goudreau’s trial includes sales records for firearm sound suppressors, night vision devices and laser sights — some of which have serial numbers that match weapons seized in Colombia by police when the plot began to unravel. All require a U.S. government export license Goudreau didn’t have.

While prosecutors didn’t say how they obtained Goudreau’s DNA, they say it was found on two of the approximately 60 automatic weapons that were assembled at the Melbourne, Florida, warehouse where Goudreau was living and his company, Silvercorp, was based.

From there, Goudreau and a co-defendant, Yacsy Alvarez, a Venezuelan living in Colombia, allegedly arranged to transport the weapons to Colombia on a private plane owned by Alvarez’s boss, a Venezuelan businessman with close ties to the government of the late Hugo Chávez.

Prosecutors allege Goudreau also spent $90,000 on a yacht he used to transport ammunition, body armor plates and magazines for AR-15 rifles. Some of the weapons never made it because the yacht sank in the middle of the Caribbean. Goudreau and an unnamed associate had to be rescued by a passing natural gas tanker.

Goudreau’s odyssey is the subject of a forthcoming documentary titled “Men of War,” co-directed by Gatien and Miami-based filmmaker Billy Corben.

Gatien registered a Florida production company with Goudreau in 2021 and is described in court records as his girlfriend. His attorney at the bond hearing said the two have lived together for two years while Goudreau attends the New York Film Academy. But upon being handcuffed outside Gatien’s apartment, Goudreau used an expletive to tell the FBI she wasn’t his girlfriend.

If convicted, Goudreau faces between 10 and 20 years in prison.