Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman considered essential for the leadership of the Venezuelan dictatorship and who is currently in prison in the US, would have been collaborating with the US anti-drug agency (DEA) since at least 2018, according to documents that had their secrecy removed by Judge Robert Scola. , from Florida. Saab reportedly reported on bribes paid to senior regime officials.
The news takes the dictatorship by surprise — which, until the conclusion of this text, had not reacted.
Maduro has made a lot of pressure for the non-extradition of Saab to the US, going so far as to remove his negotiators from the table of talks with the opposition to try to find a way out of Venezuela’s political, economic and humanitarian crisis, which was taking place in Mexico. The regime considered the Colombian businessman to be a diplomatic representative of Venezuela illegally kidnapped.
Saab had become a defendant in Miami in 2019 for money laundering, and arrested in June 2020 during a plane stopover in Cape Verde, Africa. His extradition to the United States took place in October 2021.
The businessman had been designated by the regime to carry out contracts that made the “CLAP boxes”, the basic food baskets delivered with political guidance by the government. In addition, there were allegations that it was the main link between the regime and the illicit businesses with which the dictatorship is accused of having links, such as drug trafficking, illegal mining and other crimes.
According to the Associated Press news agency, Saab also admitted to illegally receiving money to establish irregular government contracts.
The data revealed this Wednesday (16), however, say that the collaboration ceased to occur in May 2019, when he refused to surrender to the American Justice, breaching an agreement. After having stopped collaborating with the US, Saab was subject to sanctions during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
The businessman reportedly asked that information about his collaboration with the DEA not be revealed, fearing for the fate of his family, who remain in Venezuela and could face reprisals.
“They are under the finger of the government,” said Saab’s lawyer, Neil Schuster, trying to avoid spreading the news. The defense has been trying to release Saab from the lawsuit he faces on the grounds that he had collaborated with the Americans.
Judge Scola refused. “Is there all this evidence that this man is a risk, involved in multiple crimes, who has evaded authorities and extradition, and they want the judge inexplicably to let him go?” he asked.
Saab’s defense released a statement stating that he “remains a loyal citizen and diplomat of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and would never do anything to harm the country and the people who have given him so much.”
Saab’s wife, Italian Camilla Fabri, said via social media that the US was “lying, as it did with Russia and Iraq”, and that her husband would never harm Venezuela.
