Up until last month, a federal agent had been texting back and forth with Nicolas Maduro’s personal pilot as part of a bold effort to convince the aviator to secretly fly the Venezuelan dictator to a location where he could be arrested by US authorities. 

The daring plan was hatched by former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent Edwin Lopez in April 2024, when he received a tip while working at the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic that two of Maduro’s high-end private jets and several of his pilots were in the country as the aircraft underwent repairs, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Lopez focused his efforts on one pilot in particular, Venezuelan Gen. Bitner Villegas, who regularly flew Maduro around the globe. 

Villegas, a member of the Venezuelan air force and Maduro’s elite honor guard, had transported the South American strongman to countries like Iran, Cuba and Russia — and had been seen in the cockpit with the dictator in a video posted online by Maduro himself. 

In a scene out of a spy thriller, Lopez met with Villegas at an airport hangar in the DR, where the pilot was surreptitiously recorded and promised riches if he could deliver Maduro to federal law enforcement. 

Villegas left the hanger without striking a deal with the feds, but he left his phone number before going back to Venezuela. 

“I’m still waiting for your answer,” Lopez wrote in an Aug. 7 text message to Villegas reviewed by the AP.

The HSI agent included a link to the Justice Department’s announcement of a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s capture. 

The socialist leader was indicted in 2020 by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New on narco-terrorism charges. 

Maduro is accused by the government of leading Venezuelan drug cartels that have flooded the US with cocaine. 

While Lopez waited for the pilot to break, the government seized two of Maduro’s private jets, in September 2024 and February 2025, for violating US sanctions on the South American country. 

Lopez continued his campaign to turn Villegas even after he retired in July, continuing to message the pilot on WhatsApp and Telegram.  

The former agent was described by an exiled Venezuelan opposition leader who knew Lopez as “obsessed with bringing Maduro to justice,”

“He felt he had an unfinished mission to complete,” the exile told the AP.

After dangling the $50 million reward, Lopez sent another text to Villegas, noting there was “still time left to be Venezuela’s hero and be on the right side of history.” 

By September, President Trump had ramped up military operations against narcoterrorists in the Caribbean Sea — deploying thousands of troops and several Navy ships and fighter jets to the region. 

About a dozen suspected drug boats have been bombed by the US military as part of the counter-narcotics trafficking operations, since the buildup, killing more than 50 alleged terrorist drug smugglers.  

Trump has also confirmed the CIA is operating within Venezuela and has hinted at potential land strikes against targets in the South American country. 

On Sept. 18, Lopez noticed a flight tracking account on X had posted a map of the path an Airbus linked to Maduro had traveled over Caracas. 

“Where are you heading?” Lopez wrote to the pilot. 

By this point, Villegas had apparently grown tired of the agent, calling him a “coward.” 

“We Venezuelans are cut from a different cloth,” Villegas wrote. “The last thing we are is traitors.”

Lopez responded with images of their hangar meeting.  

“Are you crazy?” Villegas replied.

“A little …” Lopez shot back. 

In one of his final exchanges with Villegas, Lopez invoked the names of the pilot’s children — and argued that a better life awaited them in the US. 

“The window for a decision is closing,” Lopez wrote. “Soon it will be too late.”

Villegas responded by blocking his number.

A Venezuelan opposition ally later posted a photo of the pilot meeting with the federal agent at the hangar on X, provided by Lopez, while Villegas was apparently still in the air.

“Feliz cumpleanos ‘General’ Bitner!” read the mocking birthday wish. 

Twenty minutes after the post, the plane linked to Maduro, flying over Caracas, suddenly returned to the airport.

Villegas was not seen or heard from for days after the plane landed, but was later paraded on a Venezuelan TV show hosted by a Maduro regime official. 

On the show, Villegas was praised for his loyalty and described as an “unfailing, kick-ass patriot,” by the host, for not succumbing to Lopez’s overtures.

With Post wires