If the schedule is fulfilled, on January 20, 2027, at 2:00 in the afternoon, Alex Nain Saab Morán will hear his sentence in the Florida court, where recently pleaded guilty to the crime of “conspiracy” to launder money through the business of supplying food for the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP).
When that day arrives, a little more than a year will have passed since the capture of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores by elite US troops, an event that marked the dizzying fall from grace and immediate fate of the Colombian merchant, after more than a decade acting in the shadows as a contractor and favorite financial operator of the presidential family.
But it is not necessary to go ahead until then to affirm that 2026 has already been its annus horribilis. Delcy Rodríguez quickly relieved him of his position as Minister of Industries, ordered his arrest amidst official secrecy last February and, in May, “deported” him to the United States, alleging that he had problems with the justice system in that country and that for years he moved in Venezuela with a false ID.
Upon arriving in Miami, He was accused once again of money laundering in the CLAP business and, now without the support of the Caracas regime, which protected him for years, he pleaded guilty on September 15. Now he must provide relevant information to the North American authorities about his crimes and accomplices, in addition to the 195 million dollars that he has already agreed to deliver, if he wants to reduce the expected sentence of 20 years in prison for the charges he accepted.
Thus, in a matter of months, Saab Morán suffered setbacks that he managed to evade for years, including that of US justice itself after his triumphant return to Venezuela in December 2023, when he escaped a first accusation in 2019 for money laundering related to the Global Construction Fund company, and which led to his capture in June 2020 in Cape Verde, as well as his subsequent and first extradition to the United States, in October 2021.
Like every empire that collapses, Alex Saab’s also left behind its own “ruins” in Venezuela that, without being tourist attractions, now pass through a particular memorial of power and corruption: former partners detained, abandoned companies and offices, at least two luxurious houses in the east of Caracas, three private planes and even a luxury brand boutique and a beach club on the island of Margarita, both with the name Calle Dos Ojos.
In some cases, these properties have remained in the custody of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), as Armando.Info confirmed during a tour of some of them.
More details at https://armando.info
By Roberto Deniz
