Irregular network of companies in Mexico to send food to Venezuela revealed

The organization Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI) revealed the existence of an alleged network of irregular companies to send food from Mexico to Venezuela with alleged links to the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro.

The investigation found eight companies that between 2018 and 2019 took advantage of a structure of 13 importers created in Hong Kong, Panama, Uruguay and the British Virgin Islands to send food to Venezuela for US $ 64 million, according to foreign trade records.

“A new network of companies to send food from Mexico to Venezuela emerged in the first two years of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador government, but was abruptly stopped when the United States intervened to dismantle a money laundering scheme that involved Mexican businessmen with Alex Saab, “the report said.

The information is revealed while Saab is detained in the United States for conspiracy, although a court ordered this Monday to dismiss seven of the eight criminal charges for money laundering against him to comply with the guarantees given to Cape Verde in the extradition process.

The extradition of Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman who is alleged to be a front man for Maduro, took place on October 16 from Cape Verde, which caused Chavismo to interrupt its participation in the peace talks with the opposition that Mexico hosts.

The new network detected by MCCI replaced a structure of importers managed by Saab and Samark López Bello, a Venezuelan businessman who is accused of drug trafficking by the United States.

MCCI recalled that records revealed that between 2016 and 2018, two companies linked to Saab (Group Grand Limited and Asasi Food) and one attributed to López Bello (Postar Intertrade) participated in the purchase of food from 10 Mexican companies for about US $ 700 million.

The product was sent to the Local Supply and Production Committees of Venezuela (CLAP), a system created by Maduro in 2016 and which the United States Department of the Treasury accuses of serving as a scheme for Saab to obtain “substantial profits.” .

“These three companies were suspended in 2018 after journalistic investigations showed that the food sent from Mexico for the CLAP pantries was of poor quality or sold to the Government of Venezuela at an extra cost, in an apparent scheme of corruption, money laundering and evasion. prosecutor ”, detailed MCCI.

The new food shipping network used importers that are accused of “serving as intermediaries” for people close to President Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the organization said.

The companies, according to the civil association, were in the metropolitan area of ​​Mexico City, in Nuevo León, Baja California, Zacatecas, Veracruz and Guanajuato.

This second network operated until mid-2020, when the United States Department of the Treasury announced an investigation against Mexican businessmen for allegedly being part of a “secret network” of the Maduro regime to evade sanctions for money laundering.