REPORT: Feds Tried To Nab Socialist Dictator Nicolas Maduro In Plot Straight Out Of Spy Film

A federal agent reportedly offered to make Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s personal pilot wealthy if he secretly flew the socialist leader to a place where the U.S. could capture him.

Edwin Lopez, 50, a now-retired U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent, pitched the scheme to pilot Bitner Villegas during a meeting in the Dominican Republic, three current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press (AP). The 16-month operation included encrypted messages reviewed by the outlet and an attempt to rattle Maduro about his pilot’s loyalties. The officials and one Venezuelan opposition member confirmed details of the plot. (RELATED: Venezuela Says It Nabbed CIA Agents As US Warships Mass In Caribbean)

A tipster said in April 2024 that two of Maduro’s aircraft were being repaired in the country, processes which Lopez knew required American parts that were sanctioned from being sold to Venezuela and made the aircraft subject to being seized, the officials said. Dominican authorities and Lopez’s superiors allowed him to question five Venezuelan pilots sent to retrieve the aircraft. He reportedly saved Villegas, a Venezuelan air force colonel who officials suspected was Maduro’s regular pilot, for last.

During their conversation, Villegas’ legs started shaking as Lopez pressed him about flying Venezuelan presidents, two of the people familiar with the plot said. The pilot showed photos of himself with Maduro and former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez while one of Lopez’s colleagues recorded the discussion on a cell phone secretly, the AP reported.

Lopez told Villegas he could deliver Maduro to authorities in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic or Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, though the pilot left without committing but gave Lopez his phone number, the two sources said.

The federal agent had a daring pitch for Nicolás Maduro’s chief pilot: All he had to do was surreptitiously divert the Venezuelan president’s plane to a place where U.S. authorities could nab the strongman. pic.twitter.com/h8H1KJIXuS

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 28, 2025

The pilots left for Venezuela without the aircraft, having been told they did not have the appropriate security clearances, according to the AP.

Lopez pursued Villegas through WhatsApp and Telegram messages for months, even after retiring in July, according to messages reviewed by the outlet. Following an August text about the $50 million U.S. bounty on Maduro, the pilot didn’t respond to a follow-up message.

Their final exchange came in September when Lopez tried to press him on their previous discussion, the outlet reported. “We Venezuelans are cut from a different cloth,” Villegas shot back. “The last thing we are is traitors.”

An exiled opponent of Maduro’s called Lopez obsessed with going after Maduro, calling him “more valuable to us than many of Maduro’s biggest opponents inside Venezuela.”

Three people familiar with the plot said Lopez and additional people attempted to try and rattle Maduro. Venezuelan opposition supporter Marshall Billingslea posted an image purporting to show Villegas during the questioning shortly before a plane Maduro was known to use took off from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. The plane returned to the airport it had left twenty minutes after, the AP reported.

After being missing for days, the pilot later appeared on Venezuelan state television, standing silently with a raised fist as Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello Rondon called him an “unfailing, kick-ass patriot,” according to the outlet.

Federal authorities later seized both the jets involved in the plot in the Dominican Republic, taking the first in September 2024 and the second in February, the outlet reported. DHS, the U.S. State Department and the government of Venezuela did not comment to the AP.

The Daily Caller has reached out to DHS for comment.