A longtime U.S. law enforcement agent secretly tried to recruit Nicolas Maduro’s pilot to join a plot to capture the Venezuelan leader and deliver him into U.S. custody to face drug trafficking charges. Details of the plot are emerging as the Trump administration exerts increasing pressure on Maduro. Trump has deployed a U.S. naval strike force to the Caribbean and doubled the bounty for Maduro's arrest to $50 million.
The untold saga of how the agent tried to flip the pilot has all the elements of a Cold War spy thriller — luxury private jets, a secret meeting at an airport hangar, high-stakes diplomacy and the delicate wooing of a key Maduro lieutenant. There was even a final act of intrigue aimed at rattling the Venezuelan president about the pilot’s true loyalties.
