Ex-Green Beret behind failed Venezuela raid released pending trial on weapons charges

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge ordered the release Wednesday of a former U.S. Green Beret indicted in connection with a failed 2020 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, rejecting arguments he would flee while awaiting trial on weapons smuggling charges.

Jordan Goudreau was arrested in July after a four-year investigation into the amphibious raid that ended with several combatants killed by Venezuelan security forces and two of his U.S. Special Forces buddies locked away in a Maduro government prison.

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 immediately claimed responsibility for Operation Gideon — or Bay of Piglets as the bloody fiasco came to be known — but said he was acting in concert with Venezuela’s opposition to protect democracy.

“If I were put in his shoes, I would’ve gotten out of Dodge way before an indictment,” Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said in ordering Goudreau’s release pending the scheduled start of his trial next month.

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Goudreau, shackled at the legs in orange prison garb, responded “negative” several times when asked in court whether he had ever been diagnosed with mental illnesses that would make him a risk to himself and others upon release.

Although the 48-year-old has no criminal record and was a three-time Bronze Star recipient in Iraq and Afghanistan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman argued that Goudreau was a flight risk with a track record for manipulating witnesses who knowingly violated U.S. laws.

Krigsman said Goudreau fled to Mexico, where he stayed about a year, within days of learning he was under investigation. Prior to departing the U.S., he ran a series of Google searches that allegedly included “how to run and stay hidden from the feds” and “how to be a successful fugitive.”

Krigsman cited excerpts from a conversation Goudreau had with a confidential source in which he allegedly coached the witness into lying to investigators about roughly 60 AR-15 rifles seized by police in Colombia en route to the clandestine camps where the would-be freedom fighters were being trained.

Two of the automatic rifles contain traces of Goudreau’s DNA, while silencers, night-vision goggles and other defense equipment bear serial numbers matching those purchased by Goudreau and his Melbourne, Florida-based security firm Silvercorp. All required an export license, which Goudreau never had. Some of the weapons never made it, prosecutors say, because a yacht sank in the middle of the Caribbean, forcing Goudreau and an associate to be rescued by a passing tanker.

“His meritorious service in the military represents a stunning fall from grace,” Krigsman told the judge, referring to Canadian-born Goudreau as a “ghost” who was trained by Special Forces to “remain invisible.”

Goudreau attorney Marissel Descalzo said her client was never in hiding and was at all times in contact with investigators through another lawyer representing him in lawsuit filed against a one-time adviser to Venezuela’s opposition leader he says hired him to explore the possibility of a mercenary raid.

Previewing an argument likely to be used at trial, she said classified evidence will show Goudreau was texting with “high levels of the government” in the runup to the raid, leading him to believe the U.S. was on board with his actions. While the administration of then-President Donald Trump made no secret of his desire to see Maduro gone, there is no evidence U.S. officials blessed the invasion or the export of weapons in violation of U.S. arms control laws.

Responded prosecutor Krigsman: “If he thought he was authorized by someone from the government, why would he do those searches about fleeing the law?”

A Manhattan magistrate judge initially ordered Goudreau’s release in July. But the order was stayed while the government appealed.

As a condition for his release, Goudreau, who has no residence or assets of his own other than a sailboat docked in Tampa, will have to wear an ankle monitor. He will also be confined to the northern Florida home of a former Special Forces colleague.

A $2 million bond securing his release is guaranteed by an apartment owned by Jen Gatien, a filmmaker behind the documentary “Men at War,” billed by its producers as an up-close look at Goudreau’s life “on the run” after mounting the failed coup.

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