NY Activist Group Campaigns to Free Maduro-Linked Businessman Allegedly Tied to Hezbollah
The Bronx Anti-War Coalition is rallying support for Alex Saab as the Maduro-linked defendant faces U.S. money-laundering charges and renewed scrutiny over alleged Iran and Hezbollah ties
Jewish Onliner is an independent publication. If you find our work valuable, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
The Bronx Anti-War Coalition, a U.S.-based activist group that describes itself as an “anti-imperialist, direct-action coalition,” is organizing a letter-writing campaign under the hashtag “#FreeAlexSaab.” The campaign backs Alex Saab, the Maduro-linked businessman now in U.S. custody on a newly unsealed money-laundering indictment
Saab’s case has also drawn wider scrutiny because his name has repeatedly surfaced in reporting about Venezuela’s financial channels to Iran and alleged Hezbollah-linked networks.
The Justice Department alleges that Saab helped corrupt Venezuela’s CLAP food-distribution program and moved illicit proceeds through U.S. banks. Prosecutors also allege that, as U.S. sanctions intensified pressure on Caracas, Saab and his co-conspirators used access to government officials to obtain and sell billions of dollars’ worth of oil from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, under false pretenses.
A Food Program Becomes a Laundering Case
The indictment, filed in the Southern District of Florida in January and unsealed after Saab’s return, charges him with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. Prosecutors allege that beginning around October 2015, Saab and co-conspirators corrupted Venezuela’s Local Committees for Supply and Production, known as CLAP, a public welfare program created to distribute food to vulnerable Venezuelans.
According to the Justice Department, Saab and others bribed Venezuelan public officials to secure lucrative CLAP contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico. Instead of fully delivering on those contracts, prosecutors allege, the conspirators used shell companies, false invoices, falsified shipping records, fabricated documents, bribes, and kickbacks to skim hundreds of millions of dollars meant to purchase food for needy Venezuelans.
Treasury had mapped parts of the same alleged network years earlier. In 2019, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Saab, his business partner Álvaro Pulido, Maduro’s stepsons, and related companies, alleging Saab used overvalued, no-bid CLAP contracts and a network of front companies to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in corruption proceeds. Treasury said the CLAP system was used not only for graft, but also as a tool of political control, rewarding regime supporters and punishing critics.
The Iran Connection Reported by Multiple Outlets
Saab’s importance to U.S. investigators stems partly from his suspected proximity to Venezuela’s foreign financial channels. He was first detained in Cape Verde in 2020 while his plane was refueling en route to Iran, reportedly to negotiate supplies for the Venezuelan regime, before being extradited to the United States in 2021. He was later released in December 2023 in a prisoner swap involving Americans held in Venezuela.
The National reported that Saab could strengthen U.S. prosecutors’ case against Maduro and that U.S. officials pressed him for information about assets linked to Maduro and his associates while he was detained at El Helicoide in Caracas.
That reporting overlaps with prior coverage of Venezuela’s role as a hub for Iranian access in Latin America. Jewish Onliner previously reported on Iran’s footprint in Venezuela, including sanctions-evasion channels, aviation links, passport concerns, and the role of regime figures such as Tareck El Aissami/
The Hezbollah Allegations Around Saab
Saab has long appeared in reporting about alleged Hezbollah-linked financial architecture around Venezuela. The Times of Israel reported in 2021 that Saab had been described in prior media reports as an alleged Hezbollah money launderer close to Maduro, while noting the U.S. case against him at the time centered on money laundering. The Beiruter, citing allegations around Saab’s network, described him as a central figure in Venezuela’s cooperation with Iran and Hezbollah and tied his rise to relationships with Venezuelan officials including Tareck El Aissami.
Treasury designated El Aissami in 2017 as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker, alleging he played a significant role in international narcotics trafficking and oversaw a network spanning multiple jurisdictions. In 2019, federal prosecutors charged him with sanctions violations, alleging he used U.S. companies and intermediaries to evade OFAC restrictions.
A Support Campaign Under Scrutiny
The Bronx Anti-War Coalition’s new “#FreeAlexSaab” campaign may warrant scrutiny because it follows the group’s previous public activism honoring deceased leaders of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar.
The group’s decision to mobilize support for Saab, a Maduro-linked money-laundering defendant whose case has drawn attention for its Venezuela, Iran, and alleged Hezbollah-linked context, adds another layer of concern to the activist ecosystem forming around his defense.