Venezuela’s government said Saturday that it deported Alex Saab, a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, to face several criminal investigations in the United States. The announcement came in a brief statement from Venezuela’s immigration authority, which said the decision was made based on ongoing U.S. criminal cases but did not spell out where Saab was sent.
The deportation marks a reversal for Saab, a businessman who U.S. officials have long described as Maduro’s “bag man” and who had been pardoned by President Joe Biden in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap. The move also comes less than three years after Biden’s action, after Saab returned to Venezuela following his last arrest on U.S.-linked charges.
Venezuela’s statement referred to Saab only as a “Colombian citizen,” a framing that appeared designed to reflect Venezuelan law barring extradition of its nationals. In the dispute over Saab’s earlier case, Venezuela had submitted what it said was his Venezuelan passport to a U.S. court, and former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez—now acting president—had claimed at the time that he was an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who was illegally “kidnapped” during a humanitarian mission to Iran, intended to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
Saab, 54, made his fortune through Venezuelan government contracts, according to the Associated Press. But he later fell out of favor with Venezuela’s leadership after Maduro’s ouster, and since Rodríguez took over on Jan. 3 she has demoted Saab, including firing him from her Cabinet and removing his role as the main conduit for foreign companies seeking to invest in Venezuela. For months, conflicting accounts circulated about whether he was imprisoned or under house arrest.
While Saab’s removal could have political consequences inside Rodríguez’s coalition, the deportation also raised the possibility that Saab may become a witness for U.S. prosecutors against Maduro. The Associated Press reported that Saab may be able to testify as part of cases involving Maduro, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a January raid conducted by the U.S. military.
The U.S. Justice Department probe Saab may face is separate from the drug case. Federal prosecutors have been investigating Saab’s role in an alleged bribery conspiracy tied to Venezuelan government contracts for food imports, the Associated Press reported in February, citing a long-running inquiry connected to the so-called CLAP program that Maduro set up to provide staples to Venezuelans amid hyperinflation and economic collapse.
That investigation traces to a 2021 case brought by the Justice Department against Saab’s longtime partner, Alvaro Pulido. In that matter, Saab was identified in an indictment as “Co-Conspirator 1,” and prosecutors alleged that he helped set up a network of companies used to bribe a pro-Maduro governor who awarded food-import contracts—described by the AP as involving shipments from Mexico at inflated prices.
After Saab’s first arrest in 2020, when U.S. authorities said his private jet had made a refueling stop in Cape Verde on a trip described by Venezuela as a humanitarian mission to Iran, Rodríguez celebrated his return in 2023 as a “resounding victory” for Venezuela over a U.S.-led campaign, according to the AP. The same report said some U.S. Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, criticized the deal and urged that Saab not be viewed sympathetically.
Biden’s pardon of Saab was narrowly tailored to an earlier case, the AP reported, and it came as part of an effort by the Biden White House to roll back sanctions and encourage Maduro to hold what the administration described as a free and fair presidential election. The pardon was tied to a 2019 indictment that referenced alleged bribes connected to contracts to build low-income housing units in Venezuela that were never built.
Saab’s attorney, Neil Schuster, declined to comment, the Associated Press reported. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.