Alvaro Pulido, Alex Saab's longtime business partner, is in U.S. custody in the Venezuela bribery case.

Custody is the start of a federal court case, not the end of one. Prosecutors allege Pulido and Alex Saab built a network of offshore shell companies to move bribes to allies of Nicolás Maduro in exchange for food, medicine and housing contracts. Saab has already pleaded guilty in a related case and agreed to cooperate. Saab's plea is his own admission, and the government still has to prove its case against Pulido.

A businessman wanted for years in the United States for allegedly paying bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for state contracts is in U.S. custody, ABC News and The Associated Press reported Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. Nicole Navas Oxman, a Homeland Security Task Force spokesperson, said Alvaro Pulido was taken into custody after an investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. She did not say how he came into U.S. custody. She said he will make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.

The AP reported that 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 DEA and the State Department had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest. The Justice Department's case page for the 2021 indictment, filed Oct. 21, 2021, in the Southern District of Florida under docket 21-cr-20509, lists him as Alvaro Pulido Vargas, alongside co-defendants including Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora.

Prosecutors allege that Pulido and Saab, both born in Colombia, created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies in exchange for contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in Venezuela, the AP reported. Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 during a crackdown on corruption inside the state-run oil company PDVSA, a crackdown led by Delcy Rodríguez while she was Maduro's vice president, according to the AP. Rodríguez became acting president after the U.S. military's ouster of Maduro in January. Venezuelan authorities have so far been silent about Pulido's arrest, the AP reported.

Saab's own case has already moved. The AP reported that Rodríguez deported Saab to the United States in May, and that last month he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and others and to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds. A cooperating partner's guilty plea is evidence the government may try to use. It is not a verdict against Pulido. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Tuesday's appearance in Miami is the first public court step in his case.