WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has seized a luxury jet used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that officials say was illegally purchased through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States in violation of sanctions and export control laws.

The Dassault Falcon 900EX was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday.

U.S. officials say associates of the Venezuelan leader in late 2022 and early 2023 used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane, valued at the time at $13 million, from a company in Florida. The plane was then exported from the U.S. to Venezuela, through the Caribbean, in April 2023 in a transaction meant to circumvent an executive order that bars U.S. persons from business transactions with representatives of Maduro’s government.

The plane was widely used by Maduro for foreign travel, including in trips earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba. It was also involved in a December swap on a Caribbean airstrip of several Americans jailed in Venezuela for a close Maduro ally, Alex Saab, imprisoned in the U.S. on money laundering charges.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the aircraft had been smuggled out of the U.S. for use by “Maduro and his cronies.”

Venezuela’s government acknowledged the seizure in a statement Monday. It characterized the U.S. government’s move as “a repeated criminal practice that cannot be described as anything other than piracy.”

CNN first reported the plane seizure.

Suspected Houthi attacks: Suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted two ships in the Red Sea on Monday, authorities said, near where crews hope to salvage a tanker loaded with oil and still ablaze after another assault by the group.

The attacks are believed to be the latest in the Iranian- backed rebels’ campaign that has disrupted the $1 trillion in goods that pass through the Red Sea each year over the Israel- Hamas war as well as halted some aid shipments to conflict- ravaged Sudan and Yemen.

Meanwhile, the efforts to salvage the still-burning Sounion seek to head off the potential ecological disaster posed by its cargo of 1 million barrels of crude oil.

In Monday’s first assault, ballistic missiles hit the Panama-flagged oil tanker Blue Lagoon I, and a third exploded near the ship, said the multination Joint Maritime Information Center overseen by the U.S. Navy.

The center reported no damage or injuries.

Later Monday morning, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported a second attack off the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeida. The private security firm Ambrey said an aerial drone hit a merchant ship, though no damage or injuries were reported. The attack occurred only a few miles from where the Blue Lagoon I attack happened, Ambrey said.

The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the attacks.

Poland buries WWII victims: Poland held a state burial Monday for more than 700 victims of Nazi Germany’s World War II mass executions, whose remains were recently uncovered in the so-called Valley of Death in the country’s north, decades after their deaths.

The observances in the town of Chojnice began with a funeral Mass at the basilica, leading to an interment with military honors at a local cemetery for the victims of the Nazi crimes. The remains were contained in 188 small wooden coffins with red and white ribbons.

Joining the events were relatives of the victims, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, local authorities and top officials of the state National Remembrance Institute, which carried out and documented the exhumations.

“We want to give back memory, we want to give back dignity to the victims of the crimes in Chojnice,” presiding Bishop Ryszard Kasyna said.

UK weapons to Israel: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said Monday that it’s suspending exports of some weapons to Israel because they could be used to break international law — a move with limited military impact intended to increase pressure by Israel’s frustrated allies for an end to the war in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that the U.K. government had concluded there is a “clear risk” some items could be used to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

He told lawmakers the decision related to about 30 of 350 existing export licenses for equipment “that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza,” including parts for military planes, helicopters and drones, along with items used for ground targeting.

The decision wasn’t “a determination of innocence or guilt” about whether Israel had broken international law, and wasn’t an arms embargo, he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on X: “Deeply disheartened to learn of the sanctions placed by the U.K. Government on export licenses to Israel’s defense establishment.”

Walz OK after crash: Some vans at the back of a motorcade carrying Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz crashed on the highway while heading from the airport to a campaign stop in Milwaukee on Monday, but Walz was unhurt.

President Joe Biden called from Air Force One and spoke to Walz a short time later, as the president was traveling to a separate campaign stop in Pittsburgh with Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris’ campaign said that she also spoke with her running mate by phone after the crash.

The Harris campaign said the crash involved vehicles near the rear of the motorcade. Walz was riding closer to the front. Images posted on social media showed large passenger vans with crumpled front and backends after the collision. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash.