Former Green Beret behind failed Venezuela operation released pending trial on weapons charges

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

Jordan Goudreau was arrested in July after a four-year investigation into the amphibious assault that ended with the killing of several fighters by Venezuelan security forces and the detention of two of his U.S. special forces comrades in a Maduro government prison.

The plot, which the Associated Press uncovered two days before the invasion, was carried out by a ragtag group of Venezuelan army deserters whom Goudreau allegedly helped arm and train in neighboring Colombia.

Goudreau immediately took responsibility for Operation Gideon – or Piglet Bay, as the bloody fiasco was called – but stressed that he had acted in concert with the Venezuelan opposition to protect democracy.

“If I were in his shoes, I would have left long before the arraignment,” Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said as she ordered Goudreau's release until his trial is scheduled to begin next month.

Goudreau, who was shackled at the legs and wearing orange prison garb, answered “no” several times in court when asked if he had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness that would make him a danger to himself or others upon release.

Although the 48-year-old has no criminal record and was awarded the Bronze Star three times in Iraq and Afghanistan, Assistant US Attorney Cherie Krigsman argued that Goudreau was a flight risk and that he had tampered with witnesses in the past, thereby knowingly violating US law.

Krigsman said Goudreau fled to Mexico days after receiving news that he was under investigation, where he stayed for about a year. Before leaving the U.S., he conducted a series of Google searches that reportedly included “how to flee and hide from authorities” and “how to be a successful fugitive.”

Krigsman cited excerpts from a conversation Goudreau had with a confidential source in which he allegedly persuaded the witness to lie to investigators about about 60 AR-15 rifles that had been confiscated by Colombian police en route to the secret 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 devices and other defense equipment bear serial numbers that match those purchased by Goudreau and his Melbourne, Florida-based security firm Silvercorp. All of these weapons required an export license, which Goudreau never had. Some of the weapons never arrived, prosecutors say, because a yacht sank in the middle of the Caribbean, after which Goudreau and a business partner had to be rescued by a passing tanker.

“His meritorious service in the military represents an astonishing fall from grace,” Krigsman told the judge, calling the Canadian-born Goudreau a “ghost” who was trained by special forces to “remain invisible.”

Goudreau's lawyer, Marissel Descalzo, said her client never went into hiding and was in constant contact with investigators through another lawyer representing him in the lawsuit against a former adviser to the Venezuelan opposition leader, who hired him to investigate the possibility of a mercenary attack.

She gave a preview of an argument likely to be used at trial: She said classified evidence would show that Goudreau exchanged text messages with “high levels of government” ahead of the raid, leading him to believe the U.S. approved of his actions. While the administration of then-President Donald Trump made no secret of its desire to get rid of Maduro, there is no evidence that U.S. officials approved the invasion or the export of weapons in violation of U.S. arms control laws.

Prosecutor Krigsman responded: “If he thought he was authorized by someone in the government, why did he conduct these searches with a view to fleeing the law?”

A Manhattan justice of the peace initially ordered Goudreau's release in July, but the order was stayed while the government appealed.

As a condition of his release, Goudreau, who has no residence or possessions other than a sailboat docked in Tampa, must wear an ankle monitor and be held in the home of a former Special Forces colleague in northern Florida.

His release is secured by a $2 million bail bond. The apartment belongs to Jen Gatien, the filmmaker of the documentary “Men at War,” which was touted by producers as an in-depth look at Goudreau's life “on the run” after the failed coup attempt.

If convicted, Goudreau faces ten to twenty years in prison.

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