A businessman wanted for years in the United States on allegations that he paid bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for lucrative state contracts has been taken into custody, American officials said Sunday.
Alvaro Pulido, 62, was taken into U.S. custody following an investigation led by the DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, according to officials.
Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his longtime business partner, Alex Saab, a one-time ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department had been offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
It remains unclear how Pulido ended up in U.S. custody. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.
Attorney General Todd Blanche blasted Pulido’s alleged conduct in a social media post Sunday.
“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.
Blanche also issued a warning to others wanted by the U.S., writing that “no amount of time or distance will stop” the Justice Department “from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom.”
According to prosecutors, Pulido and Saab built a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies. In return, they allegedly secured more than $2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.
Pulido’s alleged criminal history stretches back decades. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement that before the alleged bribery offenses, Pulido had a prolific history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias German Enrique Rubio.
The Colombian-born Pulido was previously arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sprawling crackdown on corruption inside the state-run oil company PDVSA. That crackdown was led by Delcy Rodríguez while she was serving as Maduro’s vice president.
Rodríguez took over as Venezuela’s acting president after the U.S. military ousted Maduro in January.
Venezuelan authorities have so far stayed silent about Pulido’s arrest. That silence reflects the challenge Rodríguez faces in appeasing elements of the ruling coalition that want her to resist efforts by the Trump administration to round up scores of Venezuelan insiders wanted by the U.S. Some of those individuals have been sought for years for serious crimes ranging from corruption to drug trafficking.
Pulido’s longtime partner has already landed in American hands. Saab, who is also from Colombia, was deported to the U.S. by Rodríguez in May.
Last month, Saab pleaded guilty in a related bribery case. As part of that plea, he agreed to cooperate against Maduro and other individuals and to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.
Now, with both men in U.S. custody, Pulido will face a federal courtroom in Miami, where he is set to make his first appearance on Tuesday.
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