Businessman close to Venezuela president Maduro flying in business jet heading to Iran arrested
A businessman accused by the US of corrupt dealings with the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro was arrested in Cape Verde when the business jet he was travelling on from Caracas, Venezuala to Tehran, Iran made a fuelstop at the island.
The 48-year old Alex Nain Saab was on the Interpol red notice list for money laundering. He has a Colombia passport as well as a diplomatic passport of Antigua and Barbuda. He was travelling on a Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft registered T7-JIS. T7 is the country code for San Marino. The aircraft belongs to airline of David Faraco, a former Venezuelan Air Force Lieutenant. He is the current owner of Altair Jet Corp in Panama. The aircraft has been a regular visitor to Venezuela since around February 2019.
This same aircraft had arrived in Tehran at March 8, 2020. Two days later it was in Caracas. Likely the visit of the aircraft was related to the Iran-Venezuela deal in which Venezuala sold gold to Iran in return for staff and equipment to restart a petroleum refinery in Venezuela.
The website Armando.info, which is a platform for investigative journalism on corruption in Venezuela, reports about the companies of Saab, his travels and business in this very interesting blogpost. According Armando.info two other aircraft used by Saab are N259FG and N456JA .
Two American registered aircraft were heading to Cape Verde after the arrest was made. A Gulfstream IV operated by Presidential Aviation, a USG contractor formerly owned by Blackwater, departed Sal, Cape Verde heading to Miami on Sunday as flight PRD78.
Another US registered Gulfstream was scheduled to fly to Cape Verde as well. Gulfstream 3 N183PA from Sandy Wings LLC operated by Phoenix Air Group (related to the Central Intelligence Agency) . It was scheduled to land at 22;24 local time on June 13.
