Alvaro Pulido, Wanted Since 2019 in Venezuela Bribery Case, Is in U.S. Custody

Alvaro Pulido, a Colombian businessman wanted for years in the United States over an alleged scheme to bribe Venezuelan officials for government contracts, has been taken into U.S. custody, American officials said on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026.

Pulido, 62, was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021. He was scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in South Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, according to the Justice Department, as reported by Fox News and The Associated Press.

Officials did not say how Pulido came to be in U.S. custody. The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.

What prosecutors allege

Prosecutors allege that Pulido and his associates paid bribes to win Venezuelan government contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing, and moved the proceeds through the U.S. financial system.

“Pulido is charged in two separate, significant money laundering schemes, both using the U.S. financial system to hide the profits from his bribery and greed off the backs of the Venezuelan people,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said, according to Fox News.

The newer of the two cases, United States v. Alvaro Pulido Vargas, centers on contracts for a government food-distribution program and also names a former Venezuelan state governor, Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the arrest on X. “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,” he wrote.

The Justice Department also said Pulido was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997 under an alias, German Enrique Rubio.

The allegations in the U.S. cases have not been proven in court.

A wider push

Pulido’s arrest comes as U.S. authorities pursue other cases tied to the government of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by U.S. forces in January 2026 and is being held in New York. Days earlier, prosecutors added torture charges to the case against Maduro and his wife. Read about that indictment.