Ex-Green Beret released behind botched Venezuela raid awaiting trial on weapons charges

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of a former U.S. Green Beret charged in connection with a failed 2020 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, rejecting arguments that 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 left several fighters killed by Venezuelan security forces and two of his U.S. Special Forces colleagues locked up in a Maduro government prison.

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

Goudreau immediately claimed responsibility for Operation Gideon — or the Bay of Pigs, 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 in his shoes, I would have left Dodge long before an indictment,” Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington said in ordering Goudreau released pending the scheduled start of his trial next month.

Goudreau, handcuffed at the legs and dressed in an orange prison uniform, answered “no” several times when asked in court if he had ever been diagnosed with mental illnesses that would make him a risk to himself or 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 history of witness tampering that deliberately violated U.S. laws.

Krigsman said Goudreau fled to Mexico, where he remained for about a year, within days of learning he was under investigation. Before leaving the U.S., he conducted a series of Google searches that purportedly 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 to lie to investigators about about 60 AR-15 rifles confiscated by police in Colombia on the way to clandestine camps where aspiring freedom fighters were trained.

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

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

Goudreau’s lawyer, Marissel Descalzo, said her client was never in hiding and was always in contact with investigators through another lawyer representing him in the lawsuit filed against a former adviser to Venezuela’s opposition leader who he says hired him to explore the possibility of a mercenary raid.

In a preview of an argument likely to be used at trial, he said classified evidence will show Goudreau was texting “high levels of government” in the run-up to the raid, leading him to believe the U.S. was okay with his actions. While then-President Donald Trump’s administration made no secret of its desire to see Maduro go, there is no evidence U.S. officials approved the invasion or the arms export in violation of U.S. gun control laws.

Prosecutor Krigsman responded: “If he thought he was authorized by someone in the government, why would he do these searches about running from the law?”

In July, a Manhattan magistrate initially ordered Goudreau released, but the order was put on hold while the government appealed.

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

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

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