Nicolas Maduro's main front man, Alex Saab, is arrested in Africa
Colombian businessman Alex Saab, accused of being a front man for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and of laundering millions of dollars allegedly through the country's exchange control system, was arrested in Cape Verde, according to media reports on Saturday. Saab, 48, was on a private plane and was arrested when the plane landed in the African island nation to refuel, according to the daily El Tiempo, which cites people close to him. No Colombian authority has yet spoken out about Sabb's situation or confirmed his arrest. An Interpol "blue circular" is in force against the businessman.
Although he remained a low-profile and unremarkable businessman in Colombia, Saab's name appeared in the media when former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega accused him in 2017 of being one of Maduro's front men.
The Colombian businessman, born in the Caribbean town of Barranquilla and of Lebanese descent, is related to several companies, among them the Group Grand Limited (GGL) which is accused of supplying Maduro's regime with overpriced food and provisions for the government's Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP). A US government official said in July last year that with the CLAPs, which are given to the poorest, the Colombian businessman and three of Maduro's stepchildren reportedly made "hundreds of millions of dollars".
The U.S. department also filed charges last July against Saab and its right-hand man, Alvaro Enrique Pulido, who it accuses of laundering up to $350 million that they allegedly defrauded through the exchange control system in Venezuela. The agency alleges that between November 2011 and September 2015, Saab and Pulido colluded with other individuals to launder their illicit profits and transfer them from Venezuela to bank accounts in the U.S., which is why Washington has jurisdiction in the case. For that reason, Saab and Pulido have a case open for conspiracy to launder money since 2019 in the federal courts of the Southern District of Florida, and Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. declared them fugitives from justice on Aug. 26 of last year.
The announcement of his arrest was made only four days after the Colombian Attorney General's Office imposed precautionary measures for the purpose of extinguishing ownership (expropriation) of eight properties that "would make up part of the illicit patrimony that constituted the businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran through irregular financial operations. According to this institution, these assets have a value of 35 billion pesos (about 9.7 million dollars) and are located in Barranquilla. Among them are a mansion valued at $28 billion pesos (about $7.7 million dollars), two lots, a house, an apartment and three garages. "The measures with the purpose of extinction of ownership were registered in the Office of Public Instruments to prevent the properties from being sold before the occupancy proceedings," the Attorney General's Office added in a statement published Tuesday.
