Maduro ally Alex Saab, extradited by Venezuela, set for court appearance in Miami
Colombian businessman Alex Saab, one of the closest financial allies of former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, is scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in federal court in Miami after being flown from Caracas to South Florida by federal agents over the weekend to face renewed money-laundering and corruption charges tied to Venezuela’s socialist regime.
Saab is being held at the Federal Detention Center and is expected to make his initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Marty Fulgueira Elfenbein at the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the case.
Saab had previously faced money-laundering charges in Miami tied to Venezuelan housing contracts but was released in 2023 after receiving a pardon from President Joe Biden as part of a prisoner exchange agreement with the Maduro government. He is now facing a different set of allegations tied to lucrative Venezuelan government contracts, including deals linked to the country’s controversial CLAP food subsidy program.
Federal prosecutors allege Saab paid bribes to Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, while helping move enormous sums through international financial networks.
Venezuelan authorities announced Saab’s deportation Saturday in a statement issued by the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners Affairs, known as SAIME.
“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela hereby announces the deportation of Colombian national Alex Naim Saab Morán, carried out this May 16, 2026, in compliance with the regulatory provisions of Venezuelan immigration law,” the agency said.
The statement added that Saab was wanted in connection with “various crimes in the United States of America — a matter that is public, notorious, and widely reported.”
Although Venezuelan officials carefully avoided describing the move as an extradition, Saab was effectively transferred into U.S. custody amid growing cooperation between Washington and Venezuela’s interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez.
Saab’s return to U.S. custody represents another dramatic turn in a yearslong legal and political saga that has stretched from Caracas to Cape Verde and Miami.
For much of the Maduro era, Saab was regarded as one of the Venezuelan leader’s most influential financial operators, overseeing international business arrangements that prosecutors say helped move billions of dollars through complex networks of shell companies, intermediaries and overseas accounts.
He previously spent more than two years in a federal jail in Miami after being extradited from Cape Verde in 2021. But his prosecution came to an abrupt halt in December 2023, when President Joe Biden granted him a pardon as part of a prisoner exchange deal negotiated with Maduro’s regime.
After returning to Venezuela, Saab was publicly embraced by Maduro allies and later named minister of industry and national production. His political rehabilitation, however, proved short-lived.
Earlier this year, Saab largely vanished from public view amid reports that he had been detained shortly after interim President Delcy Rodríguez removed him from the cabinet.
His transfer back to the United States now comes during a particularly delicate phase for Venezuela’s interim government, which has been trying to maintain internal stability while responding to growing pressure from Washington for cooperation in corruption and criminal investigations linked to the former regime.
Rodríguez took power following the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that resulted in Maduro’s capture and removal from office. Since then, officials close to the interim government have quietly engaged in negotiations with U.S. authorities over a range of political and legal issues, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Among the subjects repeatedly raised in those conversations was Saab’s status and the possibility that he could provide information useful to ongoing criminal investigations.
People familiar with the talks previously told the Miami Herald that U.S. investigators view Saab as someone with intimate knowledge of the financial mechanisms that sustained Maduro’s inner circle for years.
“The U.S. needs Saab because he has crucial information about Maduro’s financial operations and can provide evidence for narcoterrorism charges,” one source familiar with the negotiations told the Herald. “He managed the money. If investigators want to show how funds moved through the system and how those funds may have supported criminal activities, Saab is a key witness.”
Federal prosecutors in Miami have accused Saab of overseeing schemes that generated enormous profits through inflated Venezuelan government contracts.
One of the largest investigations focuses on the CLAP food distribution program, created to provide subsidized food during Venezuela’s economic collapse. Prosecutors allege Saab and his associates manipulated the program through overpriced contracts and international financial transactions designed to conceal illicit proceeds.
Authorities have also previously accused Saab of laundering more than $350 million linked to Venezuelan housing contracts.
Saab was first detained in June 2020 after his plane stopped to refuel in Cape Verde while en route to Iran. He argued at the time that he was traveling as a diplomatic envoy for Maduro on a mission related to fuel and gold negotiations, but U.S. courts rejected those claims.
After a lengthy extradition battle, Saab was transferred to Miami in October 2021 and held pending trial.
His latest legal troubles are expected to heighten concern among former Maduro insiders already facing scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors.
Among them is Venezuelan media businessman Raúl Gorrín, owner of Globovisión, who was charged in 2024 with conspiring to launder $1.2 billion allegedly siphoned from Venezuela through corrupt oil and currency exchange schemes.
The renewed focus on Saab could also place additional pressure on senior Chavista figures such as Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, whom U.S. authorities have linked to the Cartel de los Soles drug trafficking organization.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 12:32 PM.
