A close and powerful associate of the deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has reportedly been detained during a joint operation by Venezuela’s intelligence agency and the FBI.
Alex Saab, a wealthy Colombian-Venezuelan businessman long considered Maduro’s frontman, was removed from his position in Venezuela’s government a fortnight after US forces captured his ally on 3 January. In the early hours of Wednesday, the 54-year-old was reportedly detained by members of the Bolivarian national intelligence service (Sebin) at a luxury home in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Raúl Gorrín, a billionaire media mogul who owns the Globovisión TV channel, was also reportedly detained at the same address.
There was no immediate confirmation of the arrests from Venezuela’s government but a US official said Saab had been detained as a result of collaboration between US and Venezuelan authorities. The official said they expected Saab to be extradited to the US in the coming days.
However, Saab’s lawyer, Luigi Giuliano, called reports of his client’s detention “fake news” and told Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper that he was “doing fine in Caracas”. A representative for Gorrín told the New York Times that the businessman was free as of Wednesday evening.
Intelligence sources told the Colombian radio station Caracol that Saab, who had served as minister for industry and national production under Maduro, was taken into custody at about 2am and was being held at the intelligence service’s detention centre.
Saab’s supposed detention was the latest twist in the life of the Barranquilla-born businessman, who came to be known as one of the most important financial operators of Maduro’s Chavista political movement.
In 2019, Saab was indicted in the US for allegedly being part of a corruption racket in which about $350m of government money was transferred out of Venezuela and into accounts he owned or controlled.
The following year, Saab was arrested after landing in Cape Verde while flying to Iran and, after a protracted legal battle, extradited to the US in 2021 to be charged with money laundering. He was the subject of sanctions in the UK for plundering resources destined for public programmes designed to feed and house poverty stricken Venezuelans.
However, in December 2023, Saab – who has denied the charges against him – was released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the Biden administration.
He returned to Venezuela and in 2024 Maduro made his ally a minister – a position he was stripped of on 16 January by Maduro’s former number two, the country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez.
Saab’s reported detention was a reminder of how volatile the political situation remains in Venezuela one month after Maduro’s downfall upended the country’s authoritarian political landscape.
Trump has claimed that the US is “running” the South American country after January’s special forces raid and has warned that Rodríguez could face a worse fate than Maduro if she fails to do Washington’s bidding.
Since taking power, Rodríguez has removed several members of Maduro’s cabinet and security apparatus, including the head of presidential security and the minister of communication and information.
However, other key names in the Chavismo movement remain in power, including the feared interior minister Diosdado Cabello, who controls Venezuela’s security forces and paramilitary groups.
