Alleged Maduro Ally With $10M Bounty Taken Into US Custody
Summary
Alvaro Pulido Vargas, a Colombian convicted drug trafficker linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, was arrested in Florida for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. He faces multiple federal money laundering charges related to corrupt contracts and bribery involving Venezuelan government programs.Key Facts
- Alvaro Pulido Vargas, also known as German Enrique Rubio Salas, was arrested in Florida and faces federal charges.
- The U.S. State Department and Drug Enforcement Administration offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
- Pulido is accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars using the U.S. financial system.
- He worked with Alex Saab, a former Maduro ally who pleaded guilty to money laundering and agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors.
- Pulido and others inflated costs, paid bribes, and used Venezuela’s government-run food and medicine program, CLAP, to secure contracts worth about $1.6 billion.
- The charges include multiple counts of money laundering connected to Venezuelan government contracts and currency-exchange schemes.
- Maduro and his wife face separate U.S. charges including narcoterrorism, cocaine smuggling, and conspiracy to commit torture; Maduro denies these charges.
- Venezuelan authorities also arrested Pulido in 2023 in a corruption probe related to the state oil company PDVSA.
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