The United States Department of Justice has released a list of “targets” that are of high interest in advancing eight high-profile criminal investigations related to Venezuela, according to a confidential source who has previously collaborated with federal agencies in narcotics and corruption cases.
This list includes around 25 “persons of interest” connected to Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Testimonies from these individuals could be crucial in concluding long-standing investigations that encompass both former officials and current chavista leaders. Among those mentioned are Hugo Carvajal, former head of intelligence, and Álex Saab, the so-called frontman for Maduro and Colombian businessman.
Among these eight cases, six are directly related to the production and trafficking of drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, exported to the United States and Europe. These investigations also include the criminal charges against dictator Nicolás Maduro himself, announced in March 2020, as well as cases involving military figures Clíver Alcalá, Hugo Carvajal, and Vladimir Padrino.
Recently, Clíver Alcalá, a former general, reached an agreement with the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office to cooperate as part of the withdrawal of narcotics charges against him. Alcalá is expected to testify in other narcotics-related cases, including the connections of Vladimir Padrino, the current Defense Minister of the Venezuelan regime, with drug trafficking cartels in Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico.
A focal point of investigation is the explosive corruption case known as Pdvsa-Crypto. This case features two central aspects that are also under scrutiny by the Department of Justice. The first involves Tareck El Aissami, a high-ranking figure in chavismo linked by Washington to international narco-terrorism. The second revolves around Álex Saab’s connections to the Pdvsa-Crypto scandal. In this context, Saab played a crucial role, along with his partners Álvaro Pulido and Alessandro Bazzoni.
This case is significant due to the use of cryptocurrency accounts in corrupt transactions designed to evade sanctions imposed on the state oil company Pdvsa by the U.S. Treasury Department.
According to the source, the list of “persons of interest” includes a Spanish banker who leads a major private bank in Venezuela. This banker has played a fundamental role in developing the cryptocurrency economy and is viewed by Washington as a prominent player in the electronic money market.
Nicolás Maduro is prominently featured on this list. In May 2020, he faced one of the most severe accusations against any Venezuelan leader, whether legitimate or de facto, in the country’s history. He was identified as the mastermind of a drug trafficking empire that sent 250 metric tons of cocaine from Venezuela to flood the United States with the drug while using the proceeds as a “weapon” against Washington.
This accusation elevated Maduro and a group of “collaborators,” including figures like Diosdado Cabello, Tareck El Aissami, Hugo Carvajal, and Clíver Alcalá, to a high level in the realm of international crime. This placed them above the notorious Mexican drug trafficker Chapo Guzmán, leader of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, who introduced approximately 150 tons of cocaine into the United States—one hundred tons less than the amount linked to the organization headed by Maduro.
Following the indictment’s revelation, the United States issued a reward of $15 million, which remains in effect, for Maduro’s capture, turning him into a fugitive from justice.
The informant claimed that the list of witnesses for a potential trial against Maduro in U.S. federal courts, should he be captured, is solid. However, the Department of Justice is looking for more former officials to strengthen the charges.
This list could now include influential witnesses such as Clíver Alcalá, who recently signed a confidential agreement with prosecutors in exchange for a substantial reduction in the charges against him. Additionally, former head of Sebin, Hugo Carvajal, who faces accusations of his alleged active participation in drug trafficking from Venezuela to the United States, may also join the list.
The networks surrounding Álex Saab are also under investigation. When this Colombian businessman arrived in New York from Cape Verde in October 2021 to face money laundering charges related to the CLAP box business, he already had numerous accusations, operations, and witnesses that demonstrated the extent of his influence and his impunity.
Saab’s arrest represented a significant blow to international financial networks dedicated to laundering money derived from the corruption of Nicolás Maduro’s regime. It is estimated that Saab may have controlled and concealed a considerable portion of Maduro’s fortune, which could amount to as much as $10 billion.
Since 2018, Saab began collaborating by providing compromising information about Maduro. However, he did not comply with the terms of the agreement offered by the DEA and became considered a fugitive from U.S. justice.
After his arrest in June 2020, Saab exposed a network of corrupt business dealings involving key figures, including his sons Shadi Nain and Isham Alí Saab, along with his partners Álvaro Pulido (and his son Emmanuel Rubio), Alessandro Bazzoni, and Joaquín Leal Jiménez.
Both Bazzoni and Leal Jiménez were involved not only in the CLAP boxes corruption scandal (primarily Leal Jiménez with Libre A Bordo), but they also participated in the Pdvsa-Crypto case, acting as financiers, bribers to oil company officials, and money launderers from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil in the international market. These actions contributed to an economic harm of tens of billions of dollars.
Moreover, Bazzoni was designated by the United States as Saab’s successor in the role of financial operator and facilitator of international money laundering structures—a role Saab performed before being arrested in Cape Verde.
According to the source, several sealed federal charges currently target Saab’s collaborators as a result of the Miami prosecutor’s investigation.
Hugo Carvajal, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), has an extensive history. He is accused not only of sending cocaine to the United States and collaborating with the FARC in drug trafficking as a “weapon” against the United States but also of accumulating information over the years implicating key figures such as Diosdado Cabello and Nicolás Maduro himself in the Bolivarian cartel.
Although Carvajal’s lawyers have suggested that he will not cooperate with U.S. authorities, claiming his complete innocence, the list of witnesses against him is considerable. Several former military personnel who served under his command or held privileged positions in the National Guard have been direct witnesses to his links with drug trafficking. The evidence is more than circumstantial.
As head of intelligence in Venezuela, Carvajal, at times on direct orders from Hugo Chávez, investigated the drug trafficking connections of three key figures: Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and Tareck El Aissami.
Carvajal attempted to provide this information to U.S. authorities, particularly to the DEA, hoping to reach an agreement that would spare him a prison sentence. However, he was unsuccessful in this initiative.
Although the former general apparently suffers from claustrophobia, which could make prolonged imprisonment difficult for him, the prospect of facing a long time behind bars might change his current stance.
Rafael Ramírez, former president of Pdvsa, faces accusations from the Venezuelan government for misappropriation of public funds and corruption. Additionally, he is the subject of at least two federal investigations in courts in New York and Texas, all related to corrupt transactions linked to Pdvsa through the U.S. financial system.
One of these investigations resulted in a formal indictment presented to a Grand Jury in the Southern District of Texas, headquartered in Houston, in 2017. The federal prosecutors overseeing this inquiry have gathered evidence, recordings, and testimonies from individuals who allegedly participated or witnessed irregular transactions involving Ramírez.
Recently, the federal prosecutor’s office in Houston requested cooperation from the government of Portugal in investigating Banco Espírito Santo, one of whose managers, the Swiss-Portuguese banker Paulo Murta, allegedly worked closely with chavista officials, including Ramírez, to open accounts and conduct transactions related to potentially corrupt money.
Additionally, another former Pdvsa official who served as Ramírez’s personal assistant, Rafael Reiter, may testify against him in the criminal investigation taking place in Houston. Although he was recently released in Spain, where the Venezuelan regime’s extradition request did not succeed, Reiter expects to be extradited to Texas at any moment to face corruption charges.
Close sources to the case have indicated that there are at least six hours of recordings obtained through security devices used by the U.S. government to collect “fail-proof” evidence, which will be used in future trials against Ramírez. These recordings allegedly demonstrate that the former diplomat, currently residing in Italy, violated U.S. laws prohibiting money laundering from corrupt activities. The investigations are led by a Task Force comprised of prosecutors and agents from various federal agencies, under the coordination of the Department of Homeland Security.
The cases linked to current Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, including the scandal of the 40 suitcases presumably filled with cash designated for “aid” and possible bribes in Spain, are part of the multiple criminal investigations looming over this chavista figure. One of the most prominent cases involves an investigation in which Rodríguez is accused not only of facilitating cocaine trade but also its production. This investigation is currently underway in the Miami prosecutor’s office and has been developing for several years.
This same investigation also involves Vladimir Padrino, who has long been accused of facilitating drug trafficking through military facilities and personnel, in what has been referred to as the “cartel of the Suns.”
Cilia Flores, Nicolás Maduro’s wife and considered one of the masterminds of the regime, has also been the subject of a criminal accusation for drug trafficking and corruption, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020 before a grand jury. A key witness for this case is ready to testify against Flores: Yazenky Lamas, one of her private pilots. Lamas, extradited to the United States after being captured in Colombia in 2016 during an anti-narcotics operation, was involved in daily cocaine trafficking operations from Venezuela and Colombia to the United States. He possesses deep knowledge of the chain of command and those in charge or aware of the cocaine trafficking that provides substantial criminal resources to the regime, including Cilia Flores’s role.
Additionally, three of Cilia Flores’s sons, nicknamed “the Chamos” –Walter Jacobo, Yosser Daniel, and Yoswal Alexander Gavidia Flores– have been accused by the Treasury Department due to their involvement in bribery schemes related to the network of operators for Álex Saab. They are also mentioned in the case of the embezzlement of $1.2 billion from the state oil company, in which Nicolás Maduro and Cilia’s sons participated, along with businessman Raúl Gorrín and other financial operators of the regime.
The main witness in this case is the banker Matthias Krull, who reached a cooperation agreement with the Miami prosecutor’s office that resulted in the largest sentence reduction in the history of that office.
In summary, investigations into the criminal activities of Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela continue to advance. The list of “persons of interest” provided by the United States Department of Justice reveals the scale of the accusations and cases involving key chavista figures, from Maduro to his closest collaborators. As justice seeks witnesses and evidence to strengthen the charges, it remains to be seen what the legal consequences will be for those involved in these illegal activities that have caused profound harm to both the Venezuelan people and the international community.