Claims US plane delivered guns for Maduro’s enemies

WASHINGTON: Venezuelan authorities say a USowned air freight company delivered a crate of assault weapons earlier this week to the international airport in Valencia to be used in ‘‘terrorist actions’’ against the embattled government of Nicolas Maduro.

An air freight company, 21 Air LLC, based in Greensboro, NC, operates the Boeing 767 aircraft that the Venezuelans allege was used in the arms transfer. The flight originated in Miami on Sunday.

The Boeing 767 has made dozens of flights between Miami International Airport and destinations in Colombia and Venezuela since January 11, a flight tracking service shows, often returning to Miami for only a few hours before flying again to South America.

The discovery of the weapons occurred on Tuesday — two days after the flight landed briefly in Valencia, Venezuela’s thirdlargest city — as tax authorities and other inspectors conducted a routine inspection of cargo that came off the flight, according to a statement made by the Carabobo state governor’s office.

A senior Venezuelan security official, Bolivarian National Guard Gen. Endes Palencia Ortiz, who is the nation’s vice minister of citizen security, said authorities found 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges, and 90 militarygrade radio antennas, among other items.

‘‘This materiel was destined for criminal groups and terrorist actions in the country, financed by the fascist extreme right and the government of the United States,’’ Palencia Ortiz was quoted as saying.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through its website.

An Ottawa, Canadabased analyst of unusual ship and plane movements, Steffan Watkins, drew attention to the frequent flights of the 21 Air cargo plane in a series of tweets Thursday.

‘‘All year, they were flying between Philadelphia and Miami and all over the place, but all continental US,’’ Watkins said in a telephone interview. ‘‘Then all of a sudden in January, things changed.’’