Investigations of the Department of the Treasury of the united States and of other agencies of Washington suggest that Venezuela would have used the cargo of food sent from Mexico, in the framework of its program of food bags CLAP, to receive camouflaged cash from mexican drug cartels in payment for the drug shipments sent by chavista leaders.
This operation, according to a research collaborator, would have been made by a stop of the ship in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica , where the company Alunasa the state-owned venezuelan oil, has a terminal. Through that company, the money would have gone into the financial system and come to accounts in Russian banks linked to the leaders Diosdado Cabello and Tarek el Aissami.
So it would have happened with shipments to be managed by El Sardinero Is Service, S. A. , the mexican company that in recent years more foods have been exported to Venezuela, directly or through subsidiaries, to the food bag program of the Local Committees of Supply and Production (CLAP).
Interestingly enough, the group El Sardinero is now to be specially favoured by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador . Despite being saddled with any sanction during the previous presidency of Peña Nieto, the company, through its subsidiary Surtipractic, has been awarded a contract of 70 million dollars to supply the food of the Federal Police and would be close to signing an agreement to provide food for the majority of federal prisons in mexico.
why is being able to purchase food in other countries more specialized in the export of food, such as Brazil or Argentina, the Venezuela of Nicolás Maduro focused the acquisition of products for the CLAP in Mexico? Why does this happen so if even part of these products that come to Venezuela from Mexico didn't even occur there, but are previously acquired in other places, such as the united States?
This is the key question behind the research americans . "The hypothesis of the researchers was that, given the nature of narcoestado of Venezuela, it is normal that the chavista leaders attempt to resolve the need of food in the country at the same time that solved how to get the payment on the part of the mexican cartels of colombian cocaine that passes through Venezuela," says one of the collaborators of the research.
In that direction it pointed already to the fact that purchases of food on the outside for the program CLAP was centralized by Alex Saab and Alvaro Pulido , two colombians with a long career (the first one has been especially linked to the FARC by the U.S.; the second has been in prison for drug trafficking charges). Both organized all logistics, through the company's Group Grand Limited, for the purchase of food in Mexico, counting with the supply of local companies, such as El Sardinero, whose president, Juan Carlos Fernandez French, has established a close relationship with the tandem Saab-Polished.
The business based on the premium or even the shipping of products already expired, something that is particularly neglected given the extreme need of the venezuelan people, as was reported in detail by the u.s. Treasury on the 25th of July . The Secretariat of Economy of Mexico has been estimated that the business moved more than $ 850 million between January 2017 and August 2018.
money LaunderingNew elements in the investigation, according to the person consulted, suggest that l os shipments of food have been used for refer cash linked to drug-trafficking. Ships that departed from the mexican port of Veracruz made a stopover in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, rather than navigating directly to La Guaira, in Venezuela.
In Lemon Port, the state-owned venezuelan Alunasa, dedicated to the aluminium, it has a terminal for own use . Someone who was involved in the operations performed in those facilities confirmed to the investigation that it was common among the containers of food that arrived —at a stop "technical" which is then contained in the records of navigation– had any cash.
This movement is the one that explains the alert, released in may of 2018 by the U.S. Treasury on the use of Alunasa for money-laundering on the part of leaders, venezuelans, such as Diosdado Cabello, whose plot to the illicit enrichment within the chavismo, in addition to the business share of the drug trade, it includes many of the operations related to the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, dedicated to the exploitation of various minerals in the state of Bolivar. The fact that a good part of the controls of Alunasa have to see that to see with the intelligence services of venezuelan corroborate that interest "strategic", the dome of the chavista by that company on the outside.
In the wake of the alert american, in June of 2018 the National Bank of Costa Rica has closed all accounts that corresponded to Alunasa. Apparently, in those accounts it would have made many cash deposits, when no actual customer of the company pays that way, and they would have received transfers, directly or through Panama, to accounts in Eurofinance Mosnarbank, Gasprombank and VTB, related to Diosdado Cabello and Tarek el Aissami.
Sources close to the investigation point out that while part of the shipments of cash were unloaded in Costa Rica, to enter into the financial system and go to stop to the current accounts of high-ranking leaders chavitas, another part continued to Venezuela , possibly intended for the FARC.
Date Of Update: 17 September 2019, 02:00
