It was seized on July 12 2008 at Guinea Bissau, Africa after a flight from Venezuela. On arrival the aircraft was found to be carrying 600 kilos of cocaine - all three crew members were arrested, one was the same pilot on this plane N900SA when it was seized.
Some crazy background story; Click Here. Seems ATC and airport workers were arrested, the drugs went missing, a General tried to seize the jet for himself, he was shot dead - this is a mess!!!
I know the story and it is nothing like what you posted. The airplane is still in Guinea Bissau. My buddy went last February to try and pick it up and spent 3 weeks in Guinea Bissau.
As for the Gulfstream II considering its current status - sitting in the hot sun since 2008 - this jet can’t be worth much. I can find you a mint GII-SP that is current on everything for under 800K - and I can find you currently flying GII for 400K!!!
Agreed, although this one looks like a 2B. You can find all sorts of 2’s and 3’s sitting in the sun these days and don’t have to fight to get it out of some 3rd world country.
Your friend should have been creative and stolen it, reminds me of the ex pilot of Robert Vesco - talked his way onto B707 N11RV in Panama - paid the parking fees and stole the B707 flying it all the way to Newark.
Then there was the two American pilots, hired to repossess Idi Amin’s corporate jet - sold to him by Israeli Aircraft Industries a 1121 Jet Commander.
It was two months after the raid by the Israeli’s at Entebbe - (July 76) - the two pilots, Carl Taylor and Pete Demos - showed up at the heavily guarded airport - and told the soldiers guarding the Jet Commander they were there to work on the brakes.
They said they had to do high speed taxi runs, but the soldiers got in the plane with them. Making the high speed runs as rough as possible, on the third attempt the soldiers not feeling well got out of the airplane.
Needless to say on the final run!!!, the aircraft departed and flew straight back to Israel.
they Tried to take the plane but the military blocked them and took their passports.
This flight originated in the DR not Venezuela, It was filled with Medical supplies for the poorest country in the world (Guinea Bissau) Interpol was tipped off that the plane had drugs on-board, Both Interpol and the FBI (yes the US FBI) showed up when the flight landed and drug dogs were brought on-board and no drugs were found, but when the dogs passed the local cop cars the dogs indicated there might be drugs in the car.
Guinea Bissau is a poor and corrupt country, don’t land a personal jet there, you won’t get it back.
The aircraft was sabotaged, my buddy had to bring 2 mechanics with him to fix all the sh*t they broke.
The owner (or past owner) lives in Hollywood FL.
Guess it’s like the NetJets Citation X, that the crew alerted authorities in Venezuela that a passenger had cocaine in his luggage. The Venezuelan’s seized the jet - and kept it.
It was re-registered to the Military and a General has been using it, the only place its been seen outside of Venezuela is Cuba.
In regards to N351SE, definitely a nice looking IIB, not many of them around, as for the seizure - if the story is so far off base - curious about the crew - were they a KFXE crew - or as the story stated a Venezuelan crew??
The writer of the story is on assignment of Argentina - but I did send him an email to ask him how he arrived at such a conclusion???
N351SE is also noted as departing KFXE towards Venezuela on May 21/08 never to return to the USA. It was seized in Africa on July 12/08 - that is one long charter flight??
I note the writer supposedly contacted and confirmed ‘parts’ of his story from the DEA - and their UN counterparts???
Sounds like the kind of country where ‘The only thing you can’t buy with money’, ‘You can buy with more money!!’.
It was delivered to NetJets Europe based Lisbon, on Dec 15 2000, and was seized in Caracas on Oct 24 2004 after the crew notified security their passengers were carrying cocaine. Approx. 400kg of cocaine was found on the aircraft.
The aircraft was re-registered 1060 and some general was flying around in it, then for awhile it was registered YV-2470, and now it’s back to FAV-1060.
There are Intl. court orders to seize the plane should it show up in any civilized country, so the only place outside of Venezuela it has been seen is Cuba.
This is where they send in that Popovich character (from that thread a long time ago) and see if he can back up his claims. I’d imagine that just like the C750, he’d never be seen again either.
Just checking on murky facts? on the Citation X, it was being operated by Air Luxor at the time of the seizure. There are a couple of different stories, but the aircraft was supposedly parked overnight.
When the crew showed up, there was extra baggage on the aircraft that wasn’t there the night before. A quick check by the Captain and he called authorities.
Passenger’s and crew were detained, and reportedly the co-pilot was held in custody. There was a claim he gave a key to the aircraft to an employee of Santa Barbara Air - who loaded the aircraft with cocaine.
Apparently one other person in Portugal was arrested, however the co-pilots family raised enough cash to get his release, and he returned to Portugal.
On top of this, the Venezuelan Military sent their flight crews to Flight Safety in Dallas TX to train for the Citation X they stole!!! and I’m sure Cessna sends them parts for their stolen Citation X whenever they need them???
There were 4 Columbian’s released by the FARC to a little airport in Santo Domingo Venezuela - the press reported the released Columbian’s arrived in a Cessna Caravan, and a Citation 500 tail number ‘2222’, and a Citation X ‘YV-2470’ of the Fuerza Aerea Venezolana were there to pick up the released persons.
I don’t know any details, but in 2007 the Venezuelans also seized a Gulfstream IIB c/n 75 and re-registered it ‘0010’, it was N211SJ to Mobarak Aircraft LLC on March 29/07 and was spotted on June 09/07 with Venezuelan military registration ‘0010’.
