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 narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges. Prosecutors allege that Maduro led a drug-trafficking organization for more than two decades. His attorneys are expected to argue that he is protected from prosecution as a head of state and that his capture by U.S. Special Forces was unlawful. The Treasury Department has authorized Venezuela to finance Maduro’s legal defense.
A fugitive accused of profiting from programs designed to help Venezuelans is now in U.S. custody and facing charges in a wide-ranging corruption case linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested in a Homeland Security Task Force operation and is scheduled to appear Tuesday, Oct. 13, in federal court in South Florida, the Justice Department said.
The Colombian national is facing two criminal cases accusing him of moving proceeds from Venezuelan government bribery schemes through U.S. banks to conceal the alleged profits.
A reward poster for Alvaro Pulido Vargas is marked “In Custody” after his arrest. Federal prosecutors accuse him of laundering money connected to Venezuelan government bribery schemes. (United States Attorney’s Office – Southern District of Florida)
“Pulido is charged in two separate, significant money laundering schemes, both using the U.S. financial system to hide the profits from his bribery and greed off the backs of the Venezuelan people,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the arrest Sunday on X, alleging that Pulido Vargas exploited government programs intended to provide Venezuelans with essential supplies and housing.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to 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 charged in 2019 and again in 2021. The Justice Department said he had previously been 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 case involves approximately $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts for food and medicine distributed through CLAP, a state-run program.
According to prosecutors, Pulido Vargas and his associates paid bribes to secure the contracts, then raised prices to cover the payments and increase their own profits. The alleged scheme operated from approximately July 2015 through at least 2020.
His son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, and former Venezuelan state governor Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora were among four additional defendants charged in the case.
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Prosecutors allege that Vielma-Mora and a middleman received approximately $17.3 million in bribes and other illicit payments for helping direct government food contracts and other business benefits to the group.
The alleged proceeds moved through a network of companies and bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other locations. A 2021 indictment describes fictitious contracts and other documents allegedly created to make the payments appear legitimate.
Prosecutors say approximately $180 million was transferred through or into the United States, including accounts 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 case involves an alleged effort to profit from a government program created to build homes for low-income Venezuelans.
In 2019, prosecutors charged Pulido Vargas and Maduro ally Alex Nain Saab Moran, 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.