A federal agent had a daring plan: Convince Nicolas Maduro's chief pilot to surreptitiously divert the Venezuelan president’s plane to a place where U.S. authorities could nab the strongman.

 

His intrigue-filled plan had all the ingredients of a Cold War spy thriller – luxury private jets, a secretive meeting at an airport hangar and high stakes diplomacy in a delicate dance to lure a loyal Maduro lieutenant to switch sides.

 

There was even a final bit of intrigue aimed at rattling Maduro about the pilot’s true loyalties.  

 

More broadly the scheme reveals the extent —and often slapdash fashion — to which the U.S. government has for years sought to topple Maduro.