A second money man for the Cartel de los Soles is now in U.S. custody, adding to the woes of Gaston Browne.
The U.S. announced the arrest of Alvaro Pulido, a central financial operator for the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro who experts say can help American authorities track a money trail to Browne. The Associated Press has the story.
The Colombian-born Pulido, also known as German Enrique Rubio Salas and goes by the nickname “Cuchi,” follows money launderer Alex Saab, whom Browne called his “good friend.”
How this jeopardizes Gaston Browne
- Diplomatic cover and banking ties: In one of his earliest acts as prime minister, Browne appointed Alex Saab as economic envoy for Antigua and Barbuda. Cuchi is now in a position to corroborate Saab’s testimony on Maduro’s Caribbean money-laundering networks.
- Laundering through Antiguan banks: Investigations suggest that Saab and Pulido utilized Antiguan financial institutions – including a private bank owned by Saab and a local indigenous bank – to launder dirty money. Pulido’s potential cooperation with U.S. investigators threatens to expose exactly how complicit Antiguan officials were in facilitating the Venezuelan cartel’s illicit financial flows. This will bring intense international scrutiny on Browne’s administration.
Threat to Maduro
- Exposure of the financial network: Pulido and Saab allegedly masterminded a massive network of offshore shell companies and banks used to funnel bribes to top Venezuelan officials and others. They secured lucrative state contracts for food, medicine, and housing, laundering at least hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
- Corroborating witness: Saab was deported to the U.S. and arrested in May 2026 and recently pleaded guilty to money laundering. He agreed to cooperate with American authorities against Maduro. With Pulido now also in U.S. custody, prosecutors have another top-level insider who can corroborate Saab’s testimony, add new information, and dismantle the remnants of Maduro’s financial machinery.
‘Housing’ fits a pattern
“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,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an October 11 social media post.
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