A Canadian-born former Green Beret, who was a three-time Bronze Star recipient for bravery in Iraq and Afghanistan, reportedly led a disastrous attempt to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro with a volunteer army of 300, according to the Associated Press. American citizen and former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau served as an adviser to Cliver Alcalá, a ringleader of the Venezuelan military deserters, who allegedly hatched a plot to sneak 300 heavily armed volunteers into Venezuela from the northern tip, raiding military bases and trying to ignite a rebellion in 2019 with no involvement or support from the U.S., the Associated Press reports in a special investigation. Alcalá is now in federal custody in New York awaiting trial.

Goudreau declined to give an interview to the AP, but associates he worked with described him as someone with “superb intellect for handling sources, an amazing shot and a devoted mixed martial arts fighter who still cut his hair high and tight.” Goudreau, who was investigated in 2013 for allegedly defrauding the Army $62,000 in housing stipends, retired from the military in 2016. He worked as a private security contractor in Puerto Rico before setting up private security firm in 2018 under which he became involved with Alcalá. The plot, which fell apart after many of the 300 volunteers backed out of what they called a “suicide mission,” was described by Maduro-controlled state media as “an invasion ginned up by the CIA, like the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961.”