The U.S. expands its witness search to support criminal cases against Hugo Carvajal, Clíver Alcalá, Rafael Ramírez, Tareck El Aissami, Vladimir Padrino, Álex Saab, and their international operators Álvaro Pulido, Alessandro Bazzoni, Joaquín Leal, the Majed brothers, and businessman Samark López, among others, which poses serious problems for Nicolás Maduro.
Casto Ocando | @cocando
The U.S. Department of Justice is circulating a list of “targets” considered of interest to bolster and advance eight high-profile criminal investigations related to Venezuela, according to a source who has cooperated in the past with federal agencies in drug trafficking and corruption cases.
This list includes approximately 25 “persons of interest” linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, and their testimonies could help conclude long-standing investigations, including several tied to former officials and current Chavista leaders, among whom are former intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal and Maduro’s alleged frontman, Colombian businessman Álex Saab.
Of the eight cases, six are related to the production and trafficking of drugs—cocaine and ecstasy—exported to the United States and Europe, including the criminal charges against dictator Nicolás Maduro himself announced in March 2020, alongside cases against military officials Clíver Alcalá, Hugo Carvajal, and Vladimir Padrino.
Recently, former general Clíver Alcalá reached an agreement with the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office to cooperate in exchange for the withdrawal of drug trafficking charges. He is expected to act as a witness in other drug trafficking cases, including links involving Padrino, the current Minister of Defense of the Venezuelan dictatorship, with drug trafficking cartels in Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico.
The ex-general Clíver Alcalá, currently detained in the United States, and his main accuser, Walid Makled. (Image Courtesy of Tal Cual).
El Chapo Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison for offenses that pale in contrast to the criminal conspiracy involving Maduro and others.
The explosive Pdvsa-Crypto corruption case has two key aspects under investigation by the Department of Justice: first, Tareck El Aissami’s role in the scheme, a high-ranking Chavista figure linked by Washington to international narcoterrorism; and the connections of Álex Saab, Maduro’s frontman, with the Pdvsa-Crypto scandal, where an international network associated with Saab, as well as his partners Álvaro Pulido and Alessandro Bazzoni, played a crucial role.
This investigation is highly relevant due to its focus on the use of cryptocurrency wallets in corrupt dealings to legally siphon significant quantities of Venezuelan crude oil through triangulations and illegal agreements, in blatant violation of the sanctions imposed on Pdvsa by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The list includes a Spanish banker heading a major private bank in Venezuela, who has played an essential role in developing the cryptocurrency economy and is regarded by Washington as a leading player in the electronic money market.
ALSO READ: U.S. report reveals more details about the money laundering and drug trafficking operations of the Maduro regime
At the top of the list: Nicolás Maduro
In May 2020, Maduro faced one of the gravest accusations ever directed at a Venezuelan leader—whether legitimate or de facto—in the country’s history. He was accused of overseeing a drug trafficking empire that sent 250 metric tons of cocaine “exported from Venezuela” to “flood the United States with cocaine,” while using the proceeds as a “weapon” against Washington.
This accusation placed Maduro and a group of “collaborators” including Diosdado Cabello, Tareck El Aissami, Hugo Carvajal, and Clíver Alcalá at an elevated level as figures in international crime. They were positioned far above even the Mexican drug lord El Chapo Guzmán, a dangerous trafficker who was the leader of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, accused of introducing over 150 tons of cocaine and other substances into U.S. territory—100 tons less than the organization directed by Maduro.
The U.S. immediately issued a $15 million reward for his capture after the indictment, and he is now classified as a fugitive from justice.
The witness list for a potential trial against Maduro in U.S. federal courts, should his capture occur, “is robust,” according to the source. However, the Department of Justice is seeking more former officials to strengthen the charges against him.
The list could now include powerful witnesses like Clíver Alcalá, who just signed a confidential agreement with the prosecution in exchange for a substantial reduction in charges; and potentially former Sebin chief Hugo Carvajal, himself accused of actively participating in drug trafficking from Venezuela to the U.S.
Álex Saab’s networks
When Colombian businessman Álex Saab arrived in New York from Cape Verde in October 2021 to face charges of money laundering tied to corruption in the CLAP box scheme, he carried with him numerous accusations and operations that revealed the extent of his power and the impunity with which he acted.
His arrest dealt a significant blow to the international financial networks laundering corrupt funds for Nicolás Maduro’s regime. It is estimated that Saab may have controlled and hidden a substantial portion of Nicolás Maduro’s fortune, a figure that could reach $10 billion.
Saab began cooperating in 2018, providing compromising information about Maduro, but he did not meet the terms of the agreement offered by the DEA and was declared a fugitive from U.S. justice.
Álex Saab and his close collaborators Joaquín Jiménez Leal and Alessandro Bazzoni.
However, after his capture in June 2020, Saab left behind a corrupt business structure involving several key individuals: his sons Shadi Nain and Isham Alí Saab, and his partners Álvaro Pulido (and his son Emmanuel Rubio), Alessandro Bazzoni, and Joaquín Leal Jiménez.
Both Bazzoni and Leal Jiménez have been involved not only in the CLAP box corruption scandal (primarily Leal Jiménez with Libre A Bordo) but also in the Pdvsa-Crypto scandal, acting as financiers, bribers to officials at the oil company, and money launderers from the illegal placement of Venezuelan crude oil in the international market, contributing to an economic damage of tens of billions of dollars.
Bazzoni, on the other hand, has been accused by the United States of succeeding Álex Saab as a financial operator and facilitator of international money laundering structures, exactly what Saab was doing before being captured in Cape Verde.
According to the source, several currently sealed federal charges include these Saab operators as a result of the Miami prosecutor’s investigation.
Hugo Carvajal
The former head of DIM and Sebin, Hugo Carvajal, has a rich history not only due to accusations of sending cocaine to the U.S. and cooperating with the FARC for drug trafficking as a “weapon” against the empire, but also due to the information he gathered over the years implicating both Diosdado Cabello and Nicolás Maduro in the Bolivarian cartel.
Carvajal’s lawyers have suggested that the alias “El Pollo” will not cooperate with U.S. authorities while he claims complete innocence.
Nicolás Maduro alongside Hugo Carvajal after the former intelligence chief’s release from prison in Aruba in 2014.
However, the witness list against him is extensive. Many former military members who served under his command or held privileged positions, for example, in the National Guard, were direct witnesses to his ties to drug trafficking. The evidence is more than circumstantial.
As part of his role as intelligence chief in Venezuela, and in certain cases by orders from Hugo Chávez himself, Carvajal investigated narcotrafficking connections of three key leaders: Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and Tareck El Aissami.
Carvajal himself attempted to provide information to U.S. authorities, specifically the DEA, seeking an agreement that would spare him from prison time, a matter in which he was unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, the prospect of a prolonged prison sentence—El Pollo reportedly suffers from claustrophobia—could induce changes in Carvajal’s current stance.
Rafael Ramírez
Former Pdvsa president Rafael Ramírez, currently accused by the Venezuelan government of embezzlement and corruption, is subject to at least two federal investigations in courts in New York and Texas, all linked to corrupt transactions related to Pdvsa through the U.S. financial system.
One of the investigations resulted in a formal federal indictment, presented in 2017 to a Grand Jury in the Southern District of Texas, based in Houston, according to a witness in the process. Federal prosecutors connected to the investigation have gathered evidence, recordings, and testimonies from individuals who allegedly participated in or witnessed irregular transactions involving Ramírez.
In fact, as was recently disclosed, the federal prosecutor in Houston requested assistance from the Portuguese government in the investigation against Espirito Santo Bank, one of whose managers, Swiss-Portuguese banker Paulo Murta, actively worked with Chavista officials, allegedly including Ramírez, to open accounts and conduct transactions of presumed corruption funds.
Additionally, another former Pdvsa official who acted as Ramírez’s personal assistant, Rafael Reiter, could testify against Ramírez in the criminal investigation pending against him in Houston. Reiter was recently released in Spain, after Venezuela’s regime’s extradition request did not advance; he now awaits extradition to Texas to answer charges of corruption.
According to sources consulted by Primer Informe and Venezuela al Día, there are at least 6 hours of recordings on security devices used by the U.S. government to generate “bulletproof” evidence that will be used in future trials against Ramírez.
The records allegedly prove that the former diplomat, currently residing in Italy, violated U.S. laws that penalize money laundering from corruption. The investigations are being conducted by a Task Force consisting of prosecutors and agents from various federal agencies, coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security.
Delcy Rodríguez and Vladimir Padrino
The cases involving current Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, including the scandal of the 40 suitcases allegedly filled with cash to pay “aids” and possible bribes in Spain, are among the numerous criminal investigations looming over the Chavista official.
Perhaps the most significant investigation in which Delcy Rodríguez is accused of promoting not only cocaine trade but its production, is the one currently under review by the Miami prosecutor’s office. This investigation is still ongoing after several years under scrutiny.
Vladimir Padrino is also involved in the same investigation, being long accused of facilitating drug trafficking using military facilities and personnel through the so-called cartel of the Suns.
Cilia Flores and her children
In 2020, the Justice Department in Washington introduced a criminal indictment for drug trafficking and corruption against Cilia Flores, Nicolás Maduro’s wife, who is reportedly one of the brains behind the regime.
A key witness is poised to testify against Cilia: Yazenky Lamas, one of her private pilots. Lamas did not come voluntarily to the United States; he was captured in 2016 in Colombia during an anti-narcotics operation and later extradited to Florida.
Lamas was involved in the day-to-day operations of trafficking cocaine from Venezuela and Colombia to the United States and possesses extensive knowledge about the chain of command, including who is in charge or aware of the cocaine trafficking that provides the regime with substantial criminal resources, including Cilia Flores’s role.
Maduro, Cilia Flores, and the three children of the first combatant, in this image published by OK Diario.
Additionally, three of the first combatant’s children, known as “los Chamos” –Walter Jacobo, Yosser Daniel, and Yoswal Alexander Gavidia Flores– have also been accused by the Treasury Department for their participation in bribery schemes linked to Álex Saab’s network of operators. They are also mentioned in the case concerning the embezzlement of $1.2 billion from the state oil company in which, along with Nicolás Maduro and Cilia’s children, businessman Raúl Gorrín and other financial operators of the regime participated.
The main witness in this case, banker Matthias Krull, reached a cooperation agreement with the Miami prosecutor’s office that earned him the most significant sentence reduction in this prosecutor’s history.
Conclusion
Negotiations between the regime and the Biden administration, although yielding results such as the early release of Maduro and Cilia’s nephews, and the lifting of sanctions against regime operators like Erik Malpica Flores, have not advanced in cases like the release of businessman Álex Saab or the suspension of severe sanctions against Pdvsa.
Despite the apparent unwillingness –or incompetence– of the authorities within the Biden administration dealing with Venezuela-related issues in the White House and the State Department, to apply more pressure on the regime, it is unlikely that the numerous ongoing criminal cases, now expanded with the list of “persons of interest,” will be shelved. On the contrary, we can expect an escalation of actions against Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship in the coming months.
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