Venezuela makes dramatic U-turn to expel Alex Saab, Maduro’s ‘bag men’ sent to US

Venezuela expelled businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of former President Nicolas Maduro who faced multiple criminal investigations in the United States, in a dramatic reversal less than three years after he was pardoned by then-President Joe Biden as part of a prisoner exchange deal.Venezuelan immigration authorities announced the decision on Saturday, saying Saab’s deportation was based on several ongoing U.S. criminal investigations. While the statement did not specify where Saab was being sent, it referred to him only as a “Colombian citizen,” an apparent reference to Venezuelan law that prohibits the extradition of Venezuelan nationals.Saab, 54, has long been viewed by U.S. officials as Maduro’s “baggage” and may now become a key witness in cases involving the former Venezuelan leader. Maduro himself was arrested in a U.S. raid in January and is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan.The expulsion marks a sharp decline in Saab’s standing, and Maduro and senior officials had viewed Saab’s return to Venezuela in 2023 as a diplomatic victory against Washington. After Maduro was arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 while refueling on his way to Iran, Maduro and then-acting President Delcy Rodriguez claimed that Saab was a Venezuelan diplomat on a humanitarian mission aimed at circumventing U.S. sanctions.Rodriguez has distanced himself from Saab since taking power after Maduro was ousted on January 3. She removed him from the cabinet, stripped him of his role as a liaison to foreign investors and reportedly excluded him from the country’s political and business networks. Rumors that Saab was either under house arrest or imprisoned have been circulating for months.His expulsion is expected to deepen divisions within Venezuela’s ruling Chavez movement, which is named after former president Hugo Chavez. Rodriguez has sought closer engagement with Washington, including opening Venezuela’s oil and mining industries to U.S. investment, a move that has angered hardline allies who have long decried the United States as an “empire.”Those critics include Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, one of the most influential figures within Venezuela’s security apparatus and himself the subject of U.S. criminal charges.In February, U.S. federal prosecutors spent months investigating Saab’s alleged involvement in a bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan food import contracts. The investigation stems from a 2021 U.S. Justice Department case against long-time Saab partner Alvaro Pulido.The investigation focuses on CLAP, a government-run program created under Maduro to distribute staples such as rice, corn meal and cooking oil during Venezuela’s economic collapse and hyperinflationary crisis.According to the indictment, Saab was identified as “Co-conspirator 1” and allegedly helped establish a network of companies used to bribe a pro-Maduro governor who awarded inflated food import contracts from Mexico.Saab first came under U.S. scrutiny in 2020 when he was arrested in Cape Verde while traveling to Iran on a private jet. His extradition to the United States at the time sparked outrage from Maduro’s government, which insisted he had diplomatic status.Rodriguez praised Saab’s eventual return to Venezuela in 2023 as a “complete victory” over what she called a U.S. campaign of “lies and threats.” However, some Republicans criticized Biden’s decision to pardon Sabo. Senator Chuck Grassley wrote to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland that history “should remember (Saab) as a predator of the vulnerable.”Biden’s pardon was limited to a 2019 indictment alleging that Saab and Pulido paid bribes to obtain contracts to build low-income housing projects in Venezuela that were never completed. The pardon was part of a broader deal under which Venezuela freed imprisoned Americans and returned fugitive defense contractor Leonard Francis, widely known as “Fat Leonard.”Saab may now become a key witness for U.S. authorities. Before his first arrest, he secretly worked with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to help investigators probe corruption within Maduro’s inner circle, court documents and closed-door hearings show. As part of this cooperation, Saab seized more than $12 million related to illegal business transactions.Neil Schuster, Saab’s Miami-based attorney, declined to comment, and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.