Maduro faces federal court on narco-terrorism, drug-trafficking charges
Fox News national correspondent Bryan Llenas reports from Manhattan federal court, where former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is appearing for a hearing on U.S. narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges. Prosecutors contend that Maduro headed a drug-trafficking network for more than 20 years. His defense team is expected to argue that he is protected by head-of-state immunity and that his capture by U.S. Special Forces violated the law. The Treasury Department has authorized Venezuela to cover Maduro’s legal expenses.
A fugitive accused of profiting from Venezuelan government programs intended to help struggling citizens is now in U.S. custody, facing charges in a far-reaching corruption and money-laundering investigation linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was taken into custody during a Homeland Security Task Force operation. The Justice Department said he is scheduled to appear Tuesday, Oct. 13, in federal court in South Florida.
The Colombian citizen is facing two criminal cases. Prosecutors allege he helped move proceeds from Venezuelan government bribery schemes through American banks in an effort to conceal the money.
A reward poster for Alvaro Pulido Vargas is marked “In Custody” following his arrest. Federal prosecutors accuse him of money laundering tied to Venezuelan government bribery schemes. (United States Attorney’s Office – Southern District of Florida)
“Pulido is charged in two separate, significant money-laundering schemes that allegedly used the U.S. financial system to conceal profits generated through bribery and the exploitation of the Venezuelan people,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Pulido Vargas’ arrest Sunday in a post on X, alleging that he abused government initiatives designed to deliver food, medicine and housing to Venezuelan residents.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard for the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Blanche wrote.
Pulido Vargas, who also used the name German Enrique Rubio Salas, was indicted in 2019 and again in 2021. According to the Justice Department, he was previously convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997 under that alias.
“For years, DEA and our HSTF partners have pursued Pulido Vargas across borders. Today, that pursuit has brought him to the Southern District of Florida,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said.
The more recent indictment focuses on roughly $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts for food and medicine distributed through CLAP, a state-run assistance program.
Investigators allege that Pulido Vargas and his alleged partners paid bribes to secure the contracts, then artificially raised prices to fund those payments and generate personal profits. The scheme reportedly operated from about July 2015 through at least 2020.
Among the other defendants are Pulido Vargas’ son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, and former Venezuelan state governor Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora. Four additional individuals were charged in the case.
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Prosecutors allege that Vielma-Mora and an intermediary received approximately $17.3 million in bribes and other illicit payments for helping direct food contracts and additional business opportunities to the group.
The alleged proceeds were routed through a network of companies and accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other locations. A 2021 indictment says fabricated contracts and related documents were used to disguise the payments as legitimate business transactions.
Prosecutors say about $180 million passed through U.S. accounts or entered the country, including accounts located in South Florida.
“The allegations describe a profound betrayal of the Venezuelan people: corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said.
The earlier prosecution involves a separate alleged effort to profit from a Venezuelan government program created to build homes for low-income families.
In 2019, prosecutors charged Pulido Vargas and Alex Nain Saab Moran, an ally of Maduro, alleging that they used a housing contract to exploit Venezuela’s government-controlled currency exchange system.
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People shouting during a celebration in support of Venezuela. Thousands of Venezuelans living in Madrid gathered at Puerta del Sol to celebrate the arrest of President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro after President of the United States of America Donald Trump announced that US forces had captured Venezuela’s leader after bombing Caracas. (Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The men allegedly submitted false paperwork claiming they had imported goods and building materials that never entered Venezuela, then bribed officials to approve those documents.
Prosecutors say they moved approximately $350 million out of Venezuela through U.S. banks and into overseas accounts they controlled. The alleged scheme ran from approximately November 2011 through at least September 2015.
Pulido Vargas faces five money laundering-related charges in the 2021 case, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He faces eight additional money laundering-related charges in the 2019 case.
The DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the cases through the Homeland Security Task Force initiative.
Blanche pointed to the arrest as a warning to others facing U.S. prosecution.
“No amount of time or distance will stop @TheJusticeDept from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom,” he wrote.
