A former official, a Colombian businessman who designed a policy to evade U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and was called the Nicolás Maduro regime's "money man," was arrested in Venezuela.
On the 4th, Reuters, citing law enforcement officials, and Colombia's Caracol TV News reported that Alex Saab, 54, former Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and head of the investment agency of Venezuela, was seized in Caracas in an operation involving U.S. and Venezuela's intelligence agency (SEBIN). He is expected to be extradited to the United States within days.
Former Minister Saab was one of President Maduro's "closest aides." Indicted in the United States in 2019 on money-laundering charges related to the Maduro government, he went on the run before being arrested in Cabo Verde, Africa, in 2020. The following year he was transferred to the United States and detained, but was released in 2023 in connection with the release of about 10 U.S. detainees by the Venezuelan government, returned to Caracas, and in Oct. 2024 became Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI).
However, on Jan. 3, after President Maduro was abruptly arrested by U.S. forces, Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim president who maintains a communication channel with the Donald Trump administration, removed Saab during a reorganization that merged the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and the Ministry of Commerce.
Colombian daily El Espectador said, "Saab, a former textile businessman, is considered the secret treasurer of Venezuela," and noted, "He is suspected of running a food import network for an organization known to have laundered millions of dollars through overbilling and shell corporations."
According to Reuters, Raúl Gorrín, 57, a Venezuelan lawyer-turned head of the Globovisión TV network who had been sanctioned by U.S. authorities on charges of bribing ministers in the Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) government, was also arrested by local authorities.