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The Department of Justice of the United States has opened a second criminal investigation against the ousted Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, this time based in Miami and focused on alleged financial crimes, according to reports from the Miami Herald and confirmed by the EFE agency.
The investigation was formally opened in March, weeks after Maduro was transferred to the United States on January 3, 2026 following the military operation that led to his capture in Caracas alongside his wife, Cilia Flores.
The new investigation is independent of the case that Maduro is already facing in a federal court in New York, where he was charged in 2020 with narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and weapons-related offenses, and where he pleaded not guilty on January 5.
According to CBS News, high-ranking officials from the Department of Justice and the White House ordered to open the investigation in Miami "amid concerns that the pending case against him is weak," particularly due to the absence of money laundering charges in the New York indictment.
The investigation is led by veteran prosecutor Michael Berger, specialized in international criminal matters, with the support of FBI agents, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Treasury.
The central focus of the new investigation is the figure of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman of Lebanese origin and alleged frontman for Maduro, deported from Venezuela on May 16 and escorted by DEA agents to Opa-locka Airport in Miami-Dade.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida filed a new single charge against Saab for conspiracy to commit money laundering related to the CLAP program, the Venezuelan food distribution scheme that U.S. authorities have described for years as a vehicle for corruption and illicit enrichment.
Investigators believe that Saab has exceptional knowledge of the regime's financial structure. An anonymous source quoted by the Herald described him bluntly: "Alex Saab is Maduro's frontman. He knows all the details, all the dirt. He knows everything — the negotiations with Iran, for example."
The return of Saab to U.S. custody is radically different from his previous extradition from Cape Verde in 2021, when the Venezuelan state was actively protecting him. This time, it was the Venezuelan interim government itself that handed him over, which completely alters his negotiating possibilities.
"The first time, the United States brought him from Africa while the Venezuelan state protected him. This time, the Venezuelan state delivered him — and the Venezuelan state is made up of its partners," the source stated.
In 2023, President Joe Biden included him in a prisoner exchange with Venezuela—despite not having been convicted—in exchange for the release of ten American citizens.
Saab returned to Caracas and was appointed Minister of Industry and National Production until he was dismissed on January 17, 2026, and arrested on February 4 during a joint operation by SEBIN and the FBI.
"He is no longer loyal to anyone. There are no more negotiation chips left," stated the source, dismissing the possibility that a new negotiated pardon from Caracas could save him: "The only thing left is to negotiate."
Among the background of Venezuelan cases successfully prosecuted in Miami is that of former national treasurer Alejandro Andrade, sentenced in 2018 to ten years in prison for a bribery scheme exceeding 1 billion dollars linked to the Venezuelan currency exchange system, which demonstrates the capability of the Southern District of Florida to handle high-profile corruption cases.
It is still unclear whether Saab will cooperate with investigators, but his renewed legal exposure—combined with the parallel investigation against Maduro—has intensified attention on what he knows and whether that knowledge could shape the next phase of the case against the former Venezuelan leader.
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