Saab became one of its primary suppliers, but the arrangement was deeply corrupt.
Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and former minister, was arrested Wednesday in a joint Venezuela-U.S. operation after recently leaving Maduro's cabinet. Raúl Gorrín, owner of Globovisión TV channel, was also detained; both face U.S. charges including money laundering and bribery totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Alex Saab arrested February 4, 2026, days after leaving Maduro's cabinet
- Raúl Gorrín, owner of Globovisión TV, detained in same operation
- Saab faces charges for $350 million bribery scheme; Gorrín for $159 million in bribes
- Both held by SEBIN pending extradition to United States
Venezuelan intelligence detained Alex Saab and Raúl Gorrín, two businessmen accused of being financial operatives for Nicolás Maduro, with U.S. confirmation of the arrests and pending extradition proceedings.
On the morning of February 4th, Venezuelan intelligence agents arrested Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman who had served as one of Nicolás Maduro's most trusted financial operatives. The detention came just days after Saab had stepped down from his position as minister of industry, following the military operation that toppled Maduro on January 3rd. Colombian radio station Caracol first reported the arrest, and U.S. intelligence officials quickly confirmed it to international media—a rare moment of coordination between Washington and the Venezuelan security apparatus.
Saab was not alone in custody. Raúl Gorrín, a Venezuelan businessman and owner of the television network Globovisión, was arrested in the same operation. Both men now sit in the hands of Venezuela's Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional, or SEBIN, while their extradition to the United States is negotiated. The timing suggests something has shifted in Venezuela's political calculus, though the exact nature of that shift remains opaque.
Saab's rise from modest beginnings tells much about how Maduro's government functioned. Born in Barranquilla to a Lebanese immigrant father who ran textile businesses, Saab started by selling promotional keychains and uniforms. He met Álvaro Pulido, another Colombian businessman with connections to Venezuelan politics, who invited him into business ventures across the border. When Maduro created the CLAP program in 2016—a subsidized food distribution system meant to address widespread shortages—Saab became one of its primary suppliers. By 2018, he had formalized his role as a government official, tasked with acquiring food, medicine, and refinery parts from Russia and Iran on behalf of the state.
But the arrangement was deeply corrupt. Saab's company, Group Grand Limited, allegedly supplied food to the government at inflated prices. In 2020, when he was intercepted at an airport in Cabo Verde while traveling to Iran to negotiate oil deals, U.S. authorities accused him of orchestrating a bribery scheme that diverted 350 million dollars from housing contracts meant to build affordable homes for ordinary Venezuelans. He faced eight counts of money laundering in a Miami courtroom in October 2021. In December 2023, the U.S. had released him in a prisoner exchange, freeing him in return for American citizens held in Venezuelan jails—a transaction that now appears to have been temporary.
Gorrín's criminal profile is similarly extensive. Born in Caracas in 1968, he accumulated wealth through media ownership, insurance companies, and real estate holdings across the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned him for paying bribes totaling at least 159 million dollars to Venezuelan officials. In 2017, federal prosecutors in Miami charged him with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and nine separate counts of money laundering itself. According to court documents, Gorrín paid millions to two high-ranking Venezuelan officials in exchange for favorable currency exchange rates. To hide the payments, he routed money through shell companies and allegedly purchased a bank in the Dominican Republic—Banco Peravia—to launder the proceeds. The bribes themselves were spent on private jets, yachts, luxury homes, championship horses, expensive watches, and a fashion line.
What makes these arrests significant is not the charges themselves—both men have faced U.S. indictments for years—but the fact that Venezuela's new authorities have moved to detain them. It suggests that whoever now holds power in Caracas may be willing to distance itself from Maduro's inner circle and cooperate with American law enforcement. Whether this represents a genuine break with the past or a tactical maneuver remains to be seen. Both men remain in SEBIN custody, and their extradition to the United States is pending. The outcome will say much about the direction Venezuela's government intends to take.
Citações Notáveis
The capture was carried out for possible extradition to the United States— Venezuelan intelligence source to Caracol Radio
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why would Venezuela's new authorities arrest their own former officials? Doesn't that seem like a risk?
It does, unless you understand that arresting Maduro's people is a way of signaling a break. It tells Washington—and Venezuela's own population—that this isn't a continuation of the old regime.
But Saab was already released in a prisoner exchange just months ago. Why arrest him again?
Because that exchange happened under Maduro. The new government may see him as a liability, someone too closely tied to the old corruption. Releasing him once was a negotiation. Arresting him now is a statement.
What about Gorrín? He owned a major television network. Doesn't that give him some protection?
Not if the new authorities want to consolidate power and appear legitimate. A media mogul accused of massive bribery is exactly the kind of figure a transitional government needs to prosecute to show it's serious about reform.
So this is about optics?
It's about more than that. These men controlled flows of money and information under Maduro. Removing them from circulation—and cooperating with the U.S. to do it—removes obstacles to whatever comes next.
What happens if they're extradited?
They face real prison time in the United States. But more immediately, their testimony could implicate dozens of other officials still in Venezuela. That's the real leverage.