The United States dealt a painful blow to Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by receiving yesterday from the "Green Valley Republic" a Colombian businessman of Lebanese descent, described as “Maduro’s right hand” and keeper of his financial secrets, and the architect of his foreign relations, particularly with Turkey and Iran. This is Alex Saab, who was arrested by Interpol on June 12 of last year at Praia Airport, the capital of Cabo Verde, a small archipelago in the Atlantic opposite Mauritania.
A private jet took off at four in the afternoon yesterday, carrying Alex Naeem Saab to the United States, according to breaking news that "Al Arabiya.net" covered with few details from the most famous local newspaper in the archipelago, Noticias de Norte, which reported that an appeals court in the Algarve region of southern Portugal had previously granted permission in January to extradite Saab to the U.S. on charges of money laundering and attempting to circumvent American sanctions imposed on Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela, which carries a 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
Saab, who is seen with his wife and their three children, is a treasure trove of information about the relationship between Venezuela, Iran, and Turkey. After the extradition permission was granted, his defense team issued a statement, describing the permission as a direct challenge to a ruling issued on December 2 of last year by the “Economic Community of West African States” (ECOWAS) Court, based in Abuja, Nigeria, which mandated the "Green Valley" to release Saab from prison and place him under house arrest. However, this was refused, leading his defense team to consider the refusal a violation of the laws of the "Republic of Cabo Verde" itself.
"It was kidnapping, not lawful extradition"
The defense team later issued another statement saying, "We will appeal to the High Court to contest the decision issued in the Algarve region," affiliated with Cabo Verde's judiciary in Portugal. However, the archipelagic state authorities handed him over to American justice before the appeal was presented, leading the newspaper to quote Pinto Monteiro, the head of Saab's defense team, as saying: "Our client was kidnapped, not extradited by lawful judicial means," while a statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry indicated that the extradition was "nothing but a joint conspiracy between the Republic of Cabo Verde, which tortured him for 491 days, and the United States."
American authorities stated a number of reasons and justifications in their request to Interpol to arrest Saab, who is 50 years old, including his management of a vast network aimed at enabling Maduro and his regime to divert food aid intended for Venezuela for his private benefit. He allegedly transferred $350 million to foreign accounts outside Venezuela in his name or controlled by him, as a Venezuelan citizen and a diplomat with the title of ambassador-at-large overseeing several Venezuelan companies through a group he manages called Group Grand Limited (GGL).
Food as a Reward for Supporters and a Punishment for Opponents
Among the serious charges is "his management of a wide-ranging corruption network, which controlled a program known by the initials CLAP, referring to a program for distributing supplies, where relatives and associates of Maduro were able to steal from the Venezuelan people and use food as a form of social control, rewarding political supporters and punishing opponents, thus profiting hundreds of millions of dollars," according to a memo signed by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Saab also benefited from a network of shell companies, through which he dealt with various commercial matters of the Venezuelan regime, accumulating a wealth of several billion dollars, "leaving several food issues troubling Venezuelans unresolved, such as the lack of milk for children, while he went and negotiated for fuel shipments from Iran." In this way, he established close commercial and diplomatic relations with Iran, Turkey, and Russia, "aimed primarily at helping the Venezuelan dictator circumvent international sanctions." Thus, the constitutional court in the "Republic of Cabo Verde" did not find the defense team’s arguments convincing and decided to hand him over yesterday.
Interpol had found Saab at the Cabo Verde airport while his plane was refueling, and arrested him as depicted in a video presented by "Al Arabiya.net" below, as he was about to depart for Iran to negotiate deals between them and Venezuela, including exchanging gold for Iranian gasoline, according to a report in June of last year in the Turkish news site "Ahval," based in Cyprus. It also stated that Turkey is concerned that Saab may end up in an American court as he is a "key" to many secrets.
Gold from Venezuela in Exchange for Gasoline from Iran
Additionally, it was reported that Saab established a mechanism known since 2018 under the slogan "gold for food" between Caracas, Ankara, and Tehran, under which Venezuelan gold valued at $900 million was shipped to Turkey, in return for which Ankara became the main food supplier to Venezuela of vital foodstuffs such as pasta, sunflower oil, wheat, flour, red lentils, powdered milk, canned food, and much more. Thus, Saab became "a main commercial bond" for Nicolás Maduro's administration.
He also founded a company in 2017 named Mulberry Proje Yatirim to act as an intermediary in exporting foodstuffs and selling them in Venezuela, a company that was also subjected to U.S. sanctions in 2019 for its involvement in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts linked to the food supply program in exchange for the precious metal, the specifics of which will come to light when he is investigated in the United States soon.
