An ally of the deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro with ties to Lebanon and Iran has been deported to the US.
Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman of Lebanese descent, was seen as a vital financial fixer for Mr Maduro. He could provide US authorities with information to strengthen their criminal case against the ousted leader.
He was previously arrested in 2020 while en route to Iran, but released in 2023 under a US-Venezuela prisoner swap deal. The US believes a Hezbollah financier took over some of his duties for Mr Maduro.
His deportation suggests a new level of collaboration between the US and the interim authorities running Venezuela since Mr Maduro was captured by American forces in January. The ousted president is awaiting trial in New York on charges of “narco-terrorism”.
Mr Saab had been held at the infamous El Helicoide prison in Caracas since early February, while Venezuelan and US authorities have explored ways to transfer him to the US. During his detention, Mr Saab held meetings with US officials who pressed him for information about assets linked to Mr Maduro and his associates.
Venezuelan authorities, meanwhile, explored ways to evade constitutional restrictions on extraditing citizens. It had considered annulling the Venezuelan citizenship Mr Saab had acquired, though it is not known if authorities ultimately pursued that route. Mr Saab is the son of a Lebanese immigrant who had settled in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Since assuming power in January, Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez has sought to replace Maduro loyalists with officials viewed as more acceptable to Washington, as she moves to consolidate control over the government.
Ms Rodriguez dismissed Mr Saab from his role as industry minister less than two weeks after the capture of Mr Maduro. She later removed his wife, Camilla Fabri, from a post overseeing the government’s repatriation programme.
Mr Saab was first extradited to the US from Cape Verde in 2021. He had been detained on the islands after his plane landed there for refuelling while he was en route to Iran, reportedly to negotiate supplies for the Venezuelan regime.
He was charged in Miami with laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through a bribery scheme tied to Venezuelan government contracts. He was released in December 2023 as part of a prisoner swap negotiated by the Biden administration that involved the release of 10 Americans. The Colombian government froze Mr Saab’s assets and issued a warrant for his arrest in 2018.
