Alex Saab, in an image released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office (USA), on October 17, 2021.
This Wednesday, the US government began a prisoner exchange with the Venezuelan government, which, according to several US media outlets, includes the release of the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman and alleged figurehead of Nicolás Maduro, Alex Saab.
Saab had been detained in Miami since 2021, when he was extradited after being arrested a year earlier in Cape Verde, on Africa's northwest coast. Saab was wanted by Washington on charges of money laundering, conspiracy to commit a crime, illicit enrichment, fictitious exports and imports and aggravated fraud.
The White House initially did not want to confirm the information. The Venezuelan government has also made no official statement, but the operation was taken for granted in both capitals.
Saab was arrested in Cape Verde on June 12, 2020 and extradited to Florida to face trial for alleged money laundering related to the Venezuelan government.
A poster with the inscription “Free Alex Saab. You couldn't break him” in Caracas (Venezuela) on September 9, 2021. Ariana Cubillos (AP)
In 2019, this former Maduro associate was added to the US Treasury Department's blacklist along with several associates and family members suspected of being part of a complex corruption plot.
That same year, Saab was charged with money laundering crimes in Colombia. He had been on the run from the justice system in his country of birth since 2018. They also investigated their business in Mexico.
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