Boeing jet sold by sanctioned Iranian airline to Venezuela seized and returned to US

A Boeing 747 aircraft that was sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to a carrier in Venezuela, in violation of US law, has been seized and returned to the United States following enforcement of a forfeiture order, the US Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) said.

The United States had claimed that the sale of the plane from Iran’s Mahan Air to EMTRASUR in October 2021, and its illegal flights after the sale, had violated US sanctions and export control laws.

The Venezuelan jumbo jet, referred to as MSN 23413, landed in Buenos Aires in June 2022, after attempting to land in Uruguay, where it was refused permission reportedly for carrying too many people for a cargo flight – 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians.

Argentina seized the plane and opened a terrorism investigation.

‘On Feb. 11, the government of Argentina transferred physical custody of the aircraft to the United States pursuant to the final order of forfeiture,’ the DOJ said in a press statement, 12 February. ‘The Boeing 747 cargo plane arrived in the Southern District of Florida where it will be prepared for disposition,’ it said.

‘Mahan Air – known to ferry weapons and fighters for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hizballah – violated our export restrictions by selling this airplane to a Venezuelan cargo airline. Now, it’s property of the United States government,’ said Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement at the Commerce Department, Matthew Axelrod.

‘This seized airplane’s arrival in the United States is a powerful example of our unceasing efforts to prevent Iran and its proxies from leveraging and profiting from U.S. technology.’