Venezuela's government has deported Colombian businessman Alex Saab to the United States, where he faces multiple criminal investigations, in a dramatic reversal of fortune for one of the most prominent figures in the financial apparatus of former president Nicolás Maduro. Saab, 54, landed at Opa-locka airport in Miami-Dade County on Saturday evening, escorted by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Venezuela's immigration authority confirmed the deportation in a brief statement, citing ongoing criminal proceedings in the United States, though it notably referred to Saab only as a "Colombian citizen" — an apparent legal manoeuvre to circumvent Venezuelan law, which prohibits the extradition of its own nationals.
Long described by US officials as Maduro's "bag man," Saab spent years building a shadow financial empire estimated at over one billion dollars, primarily through Venezuelan government contracts. He is accused of paying bribes to win no-bid state contracts, including a scheme tied to the so-called CLAP programme — a Maduro-era initiative designed to supply staple foods such as rice, corn flour, and cooking oil to poor Venezuelans amid severe hyperinflation. US authorities sanctioned Saab in 2019 and arrested him in 2020 during a refuelling stop in Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking Atlantic island nation, en route to Iran. He was extradited to the United States in 2021 but released in December 2023 in a prisoner swap, in which then-President Joe Biden granted him a narrowly tailored pardon covering one specific indictment. Maduro had fought vigorously for Saab's release, even declaring him a government diplomat.
Saab's latest fall from grace followed Maduro's own dramatic ouster. In January 2026, US military forces captured Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, and he now faces trial in New York on charges including narco-terrorism. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed leadership after Maduro's capture, quickly moved to distance herself from figures closely tied to him. Saab was dismissed from the cabinet in January 2026, detained under unclear circumstances in February, and his whereabouts remained uncertain for months before Saturday's deportation. His removal follows a broader pattern under Rodríguez of purging Maduro-era loyalists, a group that has also included former defence minister Vladimir Padrino López.
Saab's arrival in US custody carries significant implications beyond his own legal fate. Having previously cooperated with the DEA and reportedly helped investigators untangle corruption within Maduro's inner circle — forfeiting over twelve million dollars in illegal proceeds as part of that cooperation — he is now widely seen as a potentially valuable witness against the former president. Federal prosecutors have also been investigating his alleged role in a separate food-import bribery conspiracy.
The deportation is likely to stir tensions within Rodríguez's fragile governing coalition. While she has cultivated goodwill in Washington and secured the lifting of some US sanctions by accommodating American investment in Venezuela's oil and mining sectors, those concessions have unsettled more ideologically hardline Chavistas — followers of the movement founded by the late Hugo Chávez — some of whom, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, face their own criminal exposure in the United States. Saab's handover marks the symbolic end of a central chapter in the financial system that kept the Maduro government afloat through more than a decade of international sanctions.