A Texas yoga instructor accused of gunning down a professional cyclist in a love-triangle murder was returned to the US Saturday, days after she was caught hiding out in Costa Rica.
Fugitive Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 34, had altered her appearance – and may have even gotten cosmetic surgery – after she fled the country last month in the wake of the murder of 25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson.
In ABC 13 video, a masked Armstrong is seen in cuffs as she’s escorted by US Marshals into a waiting vehicle at George Bush International Airport. She doesn’t answer a reporter’s questions and hides her face from the news camera, the video shows.
She was taken to Harris County Jail and will be transferred to Austin, where she’ll face murder charges in Wilson’s death, according to KXAN-TV.
Armstrong is accused of killing Wilson in an Austin home on May 11 after the cyclist spent the day with Armstrong’s boyfriend Colin Strickland, also a pro cyclist. Strickland and Wilson had a romantic fling, and met up when Wilson came to town from San Francisco to prepare for a bicycle race, cops said.
Moriah Wilson was allegedly shot dead by Kaitlin Armstrong.Instagram / Moriah Wilson
After Austin cops questioned her in the homicide, Armstrong sold her Jeep Grand Cherokee that was spotted on surveillance footage outside of the crime scene. She took the $12,200 from the sale and hopped a flight to New York City, then days later used someone else’s passport to fly out of Newark, NJ to Costa Rica.
She was arrested at a hostel in Santa Teresa Beach Wednesday, with her hair dyed darker and cut shoulder length, US Marshals Service officials said. She also had a bandage on her nose and bruises under her eyes, with a witness telling Inside Edition he found a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery that was left behind when she was taken away in cuffs.
Suspect Kaitlin Armstrong was taken into custody after she fled to Costa Rica.Fuerza Publica CR
Armstrong’s bond will be set at $3.5 million and be subject to GPS monitoring, KXAN reported.
The Wilson family shared a statement with The Post that thanked Austin cops, US Marshals and others for their “diligence” in finding Armstrong.
Colin Strickland was the male member of the love triangle.Flo Bikes
“We’re relieved to know this phase of uncertainty is now behind us, and we trust that justice will prevail,” the statement said. “We’d like to ask for the media to respect our privacy at this time, as they have over the last six weeks.”
In London’s Wembley Arena, there were stage lights flashing, pyrotechnics bursting and even flames going off to a cacophony of cheering as Alicia Keys’s “Girl on Fire” came on over the speakers. That’s when Ruja Ignatova, dubbed the “Cryptoqueen,” walked onto the stage in a long, sparkly red dress, promising her cryptocurrency, OneCoin, would take over the world and become “the bitcoin killer.”
The audience at the 2016 event went wild. Amid a crypto boom, OneCoin’s status was surging in the United States and across the globe. But the company’s meteoric rise would eventually meet a swift end.
Just one year later, Ignatova disappeared without a trace, and authorities in Europe and the United States have tried to catch her ever since. The FBI on Thursday added Ignatova to its list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives — a notoriety normally bestowed on suspected cartel leaders, terrorists and killers. Ignatova, meanwhile, is accused of spearheading a pyramid scheme that defrauded investors of over $4 billion, one considered to be among the largest in history.
“Today’s announcement is a pledge to redouble our efforts to capture Ignatova, to seek justice for her victims and to hold her accountable for her crimes,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a Thursday news conference.
Ruja Ignatova, pictured in the above wanted poster, is seen giving a speech at the OneCoin’s Wembley Arena event for investors pic.twitter.com/ggx5NazryM
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 30, 2022
Before her face was splashed across a wanted poster, Ignatova, a German citizen with Bulgarian ties, had a “sterling résumé” showcasing a law degree from the University of Oxford and a consulting job at McKinsey & Company, Williams said. How Ignatova, the only woman on the most-wanted fugitives list, came to join a docket of alleged murderers and gang leaders is a tale that dates back to 2014, when OneCoin was born.
The flashy idea pitched to investors and promoted across marketing materials was a revolutionary currency “for everyone to make payments everywhere, [to] everyone, globally,” as Ignatova quipped at Wembley Arena. OneCoin promised a cryptocurrency that would surpass any other and make early users see their investments yield a “fivefold or tenfold” return, according to a criminal complaint.
But the story,as outlined in court documents, isn’t one of overhyped promises that its founders couldn’t deliver upon — like the case of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Instead, OneCoin was meant to be a Ponzi scheme from the get-go, investigators allege.
Six signs crypto investment is a classic Ponzi scheme
Despite supposedly being a form of crypto, OneCoin didn’t actually have a payment system or a blockchain model, the crucial technology that underpins cryptocurrencies — thus rendering OneCoin’s tokens essentially worthless. Ignatova and the company’s founders are accused of knowing as much. (In a statement to the BBC in 2019, OneCoin denied any wrongdoing.)
According to internal emails obtained by investigators, the point of creating OneCoin was to create a “trashy coin” that would fuse the frenzy surrounding crypto with multilevel marketing.
OneCoin relied on its users to bring in more participants by offering a slew of rewards, commissions and “trading packages” at different price points, according to federal investigators. In the end, the network of investors spanned over a hundred countries. More than 3 million people are believed to have been duped, Williams, the prosecutor, said Thursday.
Ignatova “appealed to people’s humanity, promising that OneCoin would transform the lives of unbanked people,” Williams said. “And she timed her scheme, perfectly capitalizing on the frenzied speculation in the early days of cryptocurrency.”
Meet the ‘Crocodile of Wall Street’ rapper accused of laundering billions of dollars in crypto
The plan, however, was to “take the money and run and blame someone else for this,” Ignatova wrote to a co-founder in 2014, according to court documents.
The cracks around OneCoin started to show around 2016, Insider reported, when Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Croatia, Italy and Bulgaria — where OneCoin was headquartered — began adding OneCoin to lists warning about fraudulent operations. Lawsuits soon began to pour in.
Ignatova began fearing that law enforcement would catch up with her and even bugged her American boyfriend’s apartment after she grew suspicious of him, Williams said. The recordings eventually alerted her that he was cooperating with the FBI and precipitated her plan to flee, he added.
“She immediately boarded a flight from Bulgaria to Greece with a security guard. Not one piece of luggage. The security guard came back, but Ignatova didn’t. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since,” Williams said.
Despite her disappearance in October 2017, Ignatova was indicted by a federal grand jury that month and a warrant for her arrest was issued. She’s been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The first four counts each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, while the last is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Crypto scams are on the rise, draining more than $1 billion in last year
OneCoin’s fate eventually came to mirror its founder’s. Left to Ignatova’s brother, Konstantin Ignatov, the company faltered after he was arrested by the FBI in 2019. He pleaded guilty to a slew of felonies and entered a plea deal to cooperate with authorities — which suggested he may enter the witness protection program and assume a new identity, according to court documents.
The FBI is now making a bid for the public to help with the investigation and offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to Ignatova’s arrest.
At the 2016 event in London, she said that “I’ve been called a lot of things and probably the best thing that the press called me was … the ‘bitcoin killer.’ ”
Now, she can add “most wanted fugitive” to the list.
A Canadian fugitive and his female companion were found executed in Mexico’s Playa del Carmen Tuesday, officials said.
The unidentified male victim had been hiding in Mexico for about four years since he fled Canada after being charged with fraud, according to a senior official in the state of Quintana Roo.
“He was not a tourist,” the official said.
The pair were found with their throats slit in a hotel room, according to local media reports.
A third man was also injured in the attack, prosecutors said.
The bloody scene was the latest incident of violence involving international visitors on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera coast — the nation’s largest tourism destination.
In January, two Canadians were found killed at a Playa del Carmen resort. The murders were linked to drug and weapons trafficking debts.
The unidentified male victim had been hiding in Mexico for about four years after fleeing Canada.REUTERS
Months earlier in Tulum, a California travel blogger native to India and a German tourist were killed when they were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.
Authorities dispatched 1,500 National Guard soldiers wielding automatic weapons to the area last year to keep tourists safe amid a surge of gangland-style violence in the resort-laden region.
Newly released police dashcam footage captured the moment escaped Alabama convict Casey White was arrested following a wild police chase that ended with his fugitive jail honcho girlfriend committing suicide.
Evansville police released the nearly two-minute clip on Facebook Tuesday night, showing a patrol car race up to the field where the couple’s latest getaway car, a Cadillac, had crashed on Monday in Evansville, Indiana.
About ten law enforcement members were on the scene after US Marshals rammed the car, causing it to veer into a ditch and turn on its side, according to the footage.
Many of the authorities were holding White, 38, down on the ground, before getting him up and walking him over to the Evansville squad car in cuffs, the video showed.
Two cops then bent the hulking 6’9″ 330 pound man over the hood of the car and held him down while they frisked him, as a fire truck arrived at the scene behind him.
Footage shows authorities holding Casey White down on the ground, before getting him up and walking him over to the Evansville squad car in cuffs.Evansville Police Department/TwiCasey White surrendered after Vicky White committed suicide by turning the gun on herself while cops closed in, according to police.Evansville Police Department/Twi
White, wearing a white t-shirt under a blue button down shirt, sunglasses and black pants, did not appear to resist arrest.
He surrendered after his gal pal Vicky White, 56, committed suicide by turning the gun on herself while cops closed in, according to police.
The confrontation could have been far bloodier, authorities said. Four handguns and an AR-15 were found inside the car and the fugitives were planning on having a shootout with cops but reconsidered at the last moment, according to officials.
Video of the arrest was made public shortly before Casey was extradited back to Alabama for a Tuesday night arraignment, NewsNation reported.
Casey White is seen being pulled out of the car by the police after she committed suicide while cops closed in on her, according to police. Evansville Police Department/Twi
The Bonnie and Clyde duo — who are not related — had been on the lam for 11 days, after Vicky abused her position as the Lauderdale County assistant director of corrections by fabricating a courthouse appointment for Casey and saying she would drive him there, officials said.
The jailhouse lovebirds drove off at 9:30 a.m. on April 29, ditched White’s police cruiser in a parking lot and took off in an Orange 2007 Ford Edge, which she had bought under a pseudonym, officials said.
It wasn’t until six hours later that jail officials realized something had gone horribly awry; by then the couple had ditched their vehicle in rural Tennessee, and bought a truck that would take them to a Motel 41 in Evansville.
Vicky White, seen captured on footage, abused her position as the Lauderdale County assistant director of corrections by fabricating a courthouse appointment for Casey.Evansville Police Department/Twi
A series of enforced errors led cops to close in on the fugitives on Monday, leading to Casey’s capture.
Casey had been serving out a 75-year prison sentence for a 2015 crime spree that involved attempted murder, kidnapping and armed robbery.
In 2020, he confessed to a murder and was transferred to the Lauderdale County to face the new charges.
Casey White, center, arrives at the Lauderdale County Courthouse in Florence, Ala., after waiving extradition in Indiana on May 10, 2022. APCasey White walks with police, as he arrives at the Lauderdale County Courthouse in Florence, Alabama on May 10, 2022.Twitter, Brian Entin, News Nation
Investigators said he claimed that he was hired to kill Connie Ridgeway in 2015 and knew unpublished details about the murder. His mom told The Post that his confession was false.
“He wrote a letter to say that he murdered that woman but he didn’t really murder her, he just done that to get back up here … He just wanted to be out of that prison because it was so bad and there was no food,” Connie White said.
The gun was an early Christmas gift from his parents: a semiautomatic 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun. “My new beauty,” Ethan Crumbley, 15, called it.
The day after Thanksgiving, he and his father had gone together to a Michigan gun shop to buy it. He and his mother spent a day testing out the gun, which was stored unlocked in the parents’ bedroom. On Monday, when a teacher reported seeing their son searching online for ammunition, his mother did not seem alarmed.
“LOL I’m not mad at you,” Jennifer Crumbley texted her son. “You have to learn not to get caught.”
A day later, the authorities say the teenager fatally shot four classmates in the halls of Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, using the handgun his parents had bought for him.
On Friday, Karen D. McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, laid out those and other chilling details as she took the rare step of filing involuntary manslaughter charges against the accused gunman’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley.
Ms. McDonald said the Crumbleys were culpable in the year’s deadliest school shooting because they had allowed their son access to a handgun while ignoring glaring warnings that he was on the brink of violence.
Law-enforcement officials said that the parents had gone missing on Friday afternoon and that the county’s fugitive-apprehension team, F.B.I. agents and United States Marshals were looking for the couple. “They cannot run from their part in this tragedy,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard of Oakland County said in a statement.
But lawyers for the parents said the Crumbleys had not fled, but had left town for their own safety and were returning to be arraigned.
Ever since the 1999 attack at Columbine High School, the parents of children who commit school shootings have come under scrutiny over missed warning signs and whether they should bear some blame. But they are rarely held criminally responsible in the raw aftermath of a school shooting, even though many underage attackers arm themselves with guns from home.
But in an extraordinary news conference, Ms. McDonald recounted a nearly minute-by-minute litany of missed opportunities to intervene — including how the suspect’s parents had been alerted to a disturbing drawing he made containing violent images and a plea for help just hours before the shooting.
“I am in no way saying that an active shooter situation should always result in a criminal prosecution against parents, but the facts of this case are so egregious,” Ms. McDonald said.
“I’m angry as a mother, I’m angry as a prosecutor, I’m angry as a person that lives in this county, I’m angry,” she added. “There were a lot of things that could have been so simple to prevent.”
On the morning of the Nov. 30 shooting, the suspect’s parents were urgently called to Oxford High School after one of his teachers found an alarming note he had drawn, scrawled with images of a gun, a person who had been shot, a laughing emoji and the words, “Blood everywhere,” and, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
School officials told the parents during the in-person meeting on Tuesday that they were required to seek counseling for their son, Ethan, Ms. McDonald said. The teenager’s parents did not want their son to be removed from school that day, and did not ask him whether he had the gun with him or search the backpack he brought with him to the office, Ms. McDonald said.
“The notion that a parent could read those words and also know their son had access to a deadly weapon, that they gave him, is unconscionable, and I think it’s criminal. It is criminal,” she said.
He was allowed back to class.
A few hours later, authorities say,Ethan Crumbley moved from ominous words and drawingsinto actual bloodshed. At12:50 p.m., authorities said, he walked into a bathroom carrying his backpack, emerged with the handgun and began to fire.
At 1:22 p.m., as news of the shooting tore through Oxford, prosecutors said, Jennifer Crumbley texted her son: “Ethan don’t do it.”
But it was too late.
At 1:37 p.m., James Crumbley called 911 to say that a weapon was missing from his house, and that his son could be the gunman at Oxford High, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officials say the gunman fired more than 30 rounds before he was apprehended. He has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder in the deaths ofTate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Justin Shilling, 17; and Hana St. Juliana, 14. Seven other people were wounded.
A lawyer for Ethan Crumbley pleaded not guilty on his behalf this week. Parents across the country have been charged with child abuse, violating gun laws and even negligent manslaughter after their young children accidentally shoot themselves or other children. But gun control experts said Ms. McDonald’s move to charge the parents of a mass shooting suspect was almost unheard-of.
“I can’t think of a high-profile mass shooting where the parents were prosecuted,” said Allison Anderman, director of local policy at theGiffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
In western Kentucky, there were calls three years ago to prosecute the stepfather of a 15-year-old school shooter after the authorities learned the teenage gunman had obtained his stepfather’s handgun from an unlocked bedroom closet.
But the local prosecutor, Dennis Foust, decided he could not make a case against the stepfather. Kentucky law makes it a crime to “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly” provide a handgun to a minor — a high standard to prove. Mr. Foust said the stepfather did not know the gun was gone until questioned by investigators after the shooting.
“I’m a firm believer in gun responsibility, but we just didn’t see there was enough there,” he said.
Mr. Foust said that local law enforcement also opposed charging the stepfather with a crime and wanted to keep the focus of the prosecution squarely on the gunman, who is serving a life sentence after killing two classmates.
“There needs to be accountability,” Mr. Foust said. “But under our situation, we weren’t able to do that. I don’t know that society, at least here, would effect sufficient change to be able to prosecute a parent.”
Gun-control advocates say that lax gun storage leads to suicides, accidental deaths and intentional school shootings. But legal experts say a patchwork of state laws — some stringent and some lax — regulating gun storage and children’s access to weapons can pose a hurdle to prosecutions.
Kris Brown, president of the gun control group Brady United, said that Michigan, unlike nearly 30 other states, did not have what was known as a child-access prevention law requiring adults to keep any guns in their home out of the reach of children.
“The idea is that if you have a kid in the home, even if it is not your own kid, any firearm needs to be stored safely — which means unloaded, locked and separated from any ammunition,” Ms. Brown said.
States like California and New York set tougher safety standards for gun owners while more gun-friendly states in the Southeast impose penalties only if a child actually obtains or fires a gun.
“Michigan doesn’t have a strong law or a weak law,” Ms. Brown said. “It has no law on this.”
Ms. McDonald’s decision to charge the accused gunman’s parents was widely praised by gun-control groups, who have long argued for tougher gun-storage laws and stricter penalties to keep guns away from children.
Many states, including Michigan, do not have laws requiring guns to be locked away, and experts say prosecuting a gunman’s family members in the raw aftermath of a mass shooting can raise divisive questions pitting Second Amendment rights against gun safety.
Prosecutors may next turn their attention to the culpability of the school.
Michael Kelly, a Northville, Mich., lawyer who frequently represents expelled students, said the warning signs should have led the school to take more decisive action, but that because the accused shooter had no prior disciplinary record, the school’s failure to act more decisively might fall into a legal gray area.
Mr. Kelly predicted the Oxford school district could face lawsuits similar to those filed against other schools after mass shootings. After the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. families of the victims filed dozens of lawsuits against those they argued could have prevented the attack.
The revelations on Friday quickly compounded the anger of students and parents in the suburban Detroit village of Oxford who have accused school officials of failing to prevent the shooting rampage.
“Everybody should be angry,” said Renee Guzanek, whose daughter sheltered in a teachers’ office during the shooting. “It certainly sounds from what the prosecutor says that there was an opportunity for this to be disrupted and it wasn’t.”
Serge F. Kovaleski, Sophie Kasakove, Dana Goldstein and Stephanie Saul contributed reporting.
EXCLUSIVE: North Port, Fla. – Chris and Roberta Laundrie, the parents of fugitive Brian Laundrie, ventured into Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park early Wednesday morning, where Fox News Digital saw an officer apparently tell parents that law enforcement “might have found something.”
Steven Bertolino, who represents the Laundrie family, confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Laundries informed law enforcement last night of their intentions to search the park and met officers there. Bertolino confirmed that while searching areas that Brian frequented, “some articles belonging to Brian were found.”
Officers are now conducting a more thorough search of the area, Bertolino said. A spokesperson for the Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the office was called to the Myakkahatchee on Wednesday, but would not say anything more.
The park is now closed to the public, having reopened only Tuesday following a weeks-long search for the fugitive.
Brian Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the disappearance and subsequent homicide of his fiancee, Gabby Petito. The FBI later issued a warrant for his arrest on charges related to his unauthorized used of her bank card.
A map showing the location of the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in relation to North Port, Fla., where Brian Laundrie’s family lives. (Google Maps)
BRIAN LAUNDRIE SEARCH: FLORIDA PARK REOPENS FOLLOWING SEARCHES FOR FUGITIVE: LIVE UPDATES
The Laundries, who have claimed their son went to Myakkahatchee on Sept. 13, the day he was last seen, left their North Port home just before 7:15 a.m. local time for the environmental park, where two men in hiking gear – including at least one who later identified himself as a law enforcement officer – began trailing behind them. The Laundries and one of the men appeared to discuss a discovery before the parents left the park, which was then closed to media and the public.
In a worldwide exclusive, video obtained by Fox News Digital shows the Laundries and the law enforcement officer huddling and speaking as the officer appears to show the couple an unknown discovery. The officer appeared to tell the parents: “I think we might have found something.”
During the couple’s time inside, Chris Laundrie could be seen continually moving in and out of areas of the brush. After a short while, he and Roberta Laundrie separated, with Chris and the two men moving into brush on the left side of the trail for approximately 12 minutes.
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS:
BRIAN LAUNDRIE SEARCH: PARENTS MUM ON SON’S SEPT. 1 HOMECOMING AS THEY STEP OUT ON LONG DAY OF ERRANDS
Chris returned without law enforcement, and the couple continued on. The Laundries later discovered a white bag and a dark-colored object after traveling through a patch of brambles at the edge of the brush at a clearing. They then could be seen putting the object into the bag and handing it over to the law enforcement officer shortly thereafter, who later took it from them.
On their way out of the park, the couple made a phone call and then received a call. There they were soon joined by the law enforcement officer, who could be seen patting Chris Laundrie’s shoulder as he huddled with the couple.
The couple left the park at 8:45 a.m. and appeared emotional when confronted by protesters there.
Meanwhile, about a dozen uniformed law enforcement officers and approximately six people in plainclothes could be seen entering the park, with several police or unmarked vehicles and gators seen entering. The North Port Mobile Command Center arrived at the park shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Laundries returned home shortly thereafter. A spokesperson for North Port Police Department referred Fox News Digital to the FBI for comment. An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond.
MIAMI (AP) — A top fugitive close to Venezuela’s socialist government has been put on a flight from Cape Verde to the United States to face money laundering charges, a senior U.S. official confirmed Saturday.
Alex Saab was on a chartered Justice Department flight from the West African country, a small island chain, where he was arrested 16 months ago while making a stop on the way to Iran for what Nicolás Maduro’s government later described as a diplomatic humanitarian mission.
The official spoke on condition he not be named. A public relations firm representing Saab said in an email that the Colombian businessman was taken from his home without his lawyers being notified.
Saab’s arrival in the U.S. is bound to complicate relations between Washington and Caracas, possibly disrupting fledgling talks between Maduro’s government and its U.S.-backed opposition taking place in Mexico.
Maduro has blasted the U.S. for the “kidnapping” and “torture” of Saab, a businessman from Colombia who prosecutors say amassed a fortune wheeling and dealing on behalf of the socialist government, which faces heavy U.S. sanctions.
American authorities have been targeting Saab for years, believing he holds numerous secrets about how Maduro, the president’s family and his top aides siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts for food and housing amid widespread hunger in oil-rich Venezuela.
However his defenders, including Maduro’s government as well as allies Russia and Cuba, consider his arrest illegal and maintain that Saab was a diplomatic envoy of the Venezuelan government and as such possesses immunity from prosecution while on official business.
In a statement Saturday, Venezuela’s government again denounced the “kidnapping” of Saab by the U.S. government “in complicity with authorities in Cape Verde.”
“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates this grave violation of human rights against a Venezuelan citizen, invested as a diplomat and representative of our country before the world,” the statement said.
The argument failed to persuade Cape Verde’s Constitutional Court, which last month authorized his extradition after a year of wrangling by Saab’s legal team, which includes former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and BakerHostetler, one of the U.S.′ biggest firms.
Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Saab in 2019 on money-laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government.
Separately, Saab had been sanctioned by the previous Trump administration for allegedly utilizing a network of shell companies spanning the globe — in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia and Mexico — to hide huge profits from no-bid, overvalued food contracts obtained through bribes and kickbacks.
Some of Saab’s contracts were obtained by paying bribes to the adult children of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, the Trump administration alleged. Commonly known in Venezuela as “Los Chamos,” slang for “the kids,” the three men are also under investigation by prosecutors in Miami for allegedly forming part of a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.
But while in private U.S. officials have long described Saab as a front man for Maduro, he is not identified as such in court filings.
The previous Trump administration had made Saab’s extradition a top priority, at one point even sending a Navy warship to the African archipelago to keep an eye on the captive.
On Saturday. Colombian President Iván Duque lauded the extradition of Saab in a tweet, calling it a “triumph in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption led by the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.”
Maduro’s government has vehemently objected to Saab’s prosecution as a veiled attempt at regime change by the U.S. government.
“Alex Saab is an innocent Venezuelan diplomat, a victim of kidnapping and human rights violations who has served our country face with an immoral imperial blockade,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodiríguez tweeted.
However, the Biden administration has downplayed the importance of Saab’s problems, saying he can defend himself in U.S. courts and that his case shouldn’t affect ongoing negotiations sponsored by Norway aimed at overcoming Venezuela’s long running economic crisis and political tug of war.
The government last month appointed Saab to its negotiating team and fellow envoys arrived to Mexico carrying signs reading “Free Alex Saab.”
Israeli security forces overnight Saturday-Sunday arrested the two remaining Palestinian security inmates who escaped from Gilboa prison in northern Israel nearly two weeks ago, the army said.
The arrests of the two dangerous fugitives — a week after the four other escaped prisoners were recaptured in northern Israel — brings to a close a massive manhunt following one of the worst jailbreaks in Israel’s history.
Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, both members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, were apprehended in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces said early Sunday.
“The two terrorists were caught alive and were handed over for interrogation by the security forces,” the military said. They were captured following a joint operation by the IDF, Shin Bet security service, and the Yamam counter-terrorism police unit.
Palestinian media reports said there were exchanges of gunfire during the predawn arrest raid by Israeli special forces. There were no reports of Israeli or Palestinian casualties.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The two Palestinian fugitives did not resist arrest, surrendering after Israeli troops encircled the building where they were hiding.
Fouad Kamamji, Iham’s father, told The Associated Press that his son had called him when the Israeli troops surrounded the house and said he will surrender “in order not to endanger the house owners.”
Two alleged accomplices, reportedly Jenin residents, were also arrested in the raid. The Shin Bet security service said it was questioning both the fugitives and the accomplices.
כמאמג׳י ואינפיעאת לאחר המעצר pic.twitter.com/K5hghSsOc2
— Alon Ben-David (@alonbd) September 19, 2021
Kamamji was serving a life sentence at the time of the escape, for killing an 18-year-old Israeli in 2006, a murder he reportedly expressed pride in. Nafayat has not been charged with a crime other than being a member of the Islamic Jihad, and was being held under Israel’s practice of administrative detention, which allows it to imprison suspects without filing charges. Security officials had feared they could attempt to carry out a terror attack while on the run.
“As time passed, we knew they were in Jenin,” Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said early Sunday. “We prepared for several days for a complex mission and tonight, after receiving the information we had been waiting for, the signal was given to start the operation, with Yamam forces at the forefront.”
תיעוד נוסף של מעצר שני המחבלים בג׳נין. במערכת הבטחון מקווים שהתוצאה של 6:0 ללא נפגעים בקרב כוחות הביטחון או המחבלים העצורים תסייע לישראל לסגור את ארוע בריחת האסירים ללא הסלמה. לא ניתן לשלול אפשרות של ירי רקטות מצד הג׳יהאד האיסלמי בעזה. סוללות כיפת ברזל בעוטף בכוננות. pic.twitter.com/u73zuh1kye
— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) September 18, 2021
The six Palestinian prisoners escaped from Gilboa Prison in the pre-dawn hours of September 6, making their way out through their cell’s drainage system and an empty space underneath the prison. They had reportedly begun digging in November, using plates and pan handles.
In this photo provided by Israel Police, Zakaria Zubeidi, left, and Mohammed al-Arida, two of six Palestinian security Prisoners who broke out of Gilboa Prison, are blindfolded and handcuffed after being recaptured in the Arab town of Umm al-Ghanam, northern Israel, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Israeli Police via AP)
The escape exposed a series of failures at the prison. Among the apparent lapses were failure to learn lessons from previous escape attempts and several operational blunders, including unmanned watchtowers and sleeping guards.
Four of the six escapees, including notorious terror commander Zakaria Zubeidi, were caught by security forces last weekend. Yaqoub Qadiri and Mahmoud al-Arida, the latter reported to be the mastermind of the jailbreak, were arrested in the northern town of Nazareth.
In this Monday, Sept. 6, 2021 file photo, police officers and prison guards inspect the scene of a prison escape by six Palestinian prisoners, outside the Gilboa prison in Northern Israel. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)
Al-Arida, considered a senior Islamic Jihad member, was jailed for life for terrorist activity, including attacks in which soldiers were killed. Qadiri, also an Islamic Jihad member, was also serving life terms for acts of terrorism including the murder of an Israeli in 2004. Both men were reportedly involved in a 2014 attempt to break out of Gilboa.
Zubeidi, a notorious commander in Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terror group, was in prison while on trial for two dozen crimes, including attempted murder. The younger al-Arida, also an Islamic Jihad member was arrested in 2002 on terror offenses and sentenced to life in prison.
Israeli security forces arrest the remaining two Palestinian fugitives in Jenin, West Bank, on September 19, 2021 (screen capture: Twitter)
Among the Palestinians, the fugitives have been widely regarded as “heroes” who succeeded in freeing themselves from multiple life sentences. The jailbreak was followed by heightened tensions in the West Bank, a stabbing attack in Jerusalem, several other attack attempts, and sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.
AP contributed to this report.
You’re serious. We appreciate that!
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we come to work every day – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Palestinians expressed disappointment and anger in the media and on social media on Saturday over Israel’s capture of four out of six prisoners who escaped their jail earlier in the week, amid calls for mass protests and clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank.
According to Channel 12 news, the Palestinian public was being urged by various religious and political figures to go out into the streets and confront Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, Hamas was promising that the recaptured prisoners would be freed in a future swap with Israel.
It also called on Arab Israelis — several of whom helped authorities catch the men — to aid the remaining fugitives in evading the law.
On social media, where the six had been lionized in recent days as national heros, doctored photos were disseminated of the fugitives after their capture, turning their true-life grim and tired expressions into defiant grins to the cameras.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Such editing is easily achievable using various apps.
Gaza media just FaceApp’ed a smile on the 2 recaptured Palestinian terrorists and we can’t even. pic.twitter.com/b19iZVpyJV
— The Mossad: The Social Media Account (@TheMossadIL) September 10, 2021
According to Channel 12, Palestinian prisoners across Israeli jails were planning to begin hunger strikes on September 17, in protest of authorities’ steps to increase curbs on prisoners in the wake of the escape.
Several hundred Palestinians clashed with Israel Defense Forces troops in several areas in the West Bank on Saturday evening. IDF troops responded with riot control means.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that it treated eight people suffering from injuries from rubber bullets and another 15 cases of tear gas inhalation during clashes at Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus.
Friday night also saw demonstrations held across the West Bank, some of them violent, after the police captured two of the six Palestinian security prisoners. Up to 1,000 demonstrators and rioters took part in protests at 11 locations across the West Bank.
Palestinians opened fire toward Israeli troops at the Jalamah checkpoint, near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, for the second night in a row, according to the Israeli military.
The Israeli army said that up to 600 protesters gathered at the checkpoint to clash with soldiers. In addition to the gunfire, rioters set fire to tires and threw Molotov cocktails toward soldiers stationed there. The military said that it acted to disperse the demonstrators. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The cinematic Gilboa Prison jailbreak of the six Palestinians on Monday morning has raised tensions across the West Bank. Israeli forces have conducted wide-ranging search operations, while Palestinian armed groups have vowed revenge should the fugitives be harmed.
Videos circulating on social media showed small crowds gathering in downtown Ramallah and Hebron’s al-Fawar refugee camp on Friday night in solidarity with the two recaptured fugitives. Other footage purportedly showed violent disturbances at the Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem.
In another nighttime disturbance in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers fired at three Palestinians at a pillbox near Hebron, wounding one. An Israeli military spokesperson said that the three had thrown Molotov cocktails at troops. The soldiers responded with Ruger bullets, a smaller but still deadly form of live fire, according to the army. The three suspects fled, with Israeli search efforts ongoing.
Palestinian media also reported clashes in Hebron’s al-Aroub refugee camp. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Palestinians riot at a demonstration in support of the escape of the six prisoners in the village of Kafr Qaddoum, west of Nablus in the West Bank, on September 10, 2021. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)
Additionally, gunmen attacked the home of Arab Israeli senior police officer Jamal Hakroush in the northern Israeli city of Kafr Kanna on Friday evening. There were no injuries in the incident, although the shooting damaged the building, according to Israel Police.
It was unclear if the attack was linked to the capture of the prisoners, a police spokesperson added. Hakroush directs a unit whose directive is to fight rising crime in Arab cities and towns.
The disturbances came in the hours immediately following the capture of two of the escaped prisoners in the northern Israeli town of Nazareth.
Shortly after the arrests, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a single rocket toward Israel that was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. The Magen David Adom emergency service said that one woman was lightly injured while running for shelter when the siren sounded.
For many Palestinians, the fugitives have been regarded as “heroes” who succeeded in freeing themselves from multiple life sentences. In the Gaza Strip, as well as in the West Bank, some Palestinians have organized sit-ins and joyful gatherings to celebrate the prison break.
Despite the captures, Islamic Jihad celebrated the escapees and warned Israel against harming them while in detention, as well as saying this week’s jail bust would not be the last.
“We hold the enemy totally responsible for the lives of the two prisoners arrested in Nazareth. Putting their lives in danger would be a declaration of war against the Palestinian people,” the terror group said in a statement.
Israel “is trying to use the picture of the two fighters’ arrests to try and show that this is a victory, to revitalize the image of its army which has become the target of mockery,” Islamic Jihad spokesperson Daoud Shehab told the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen network.
“This operation absolutely will not be the last,” Shehab warned, referring to the prisoner escape, later adding: “We are perfectly aware that we are engaged in a long struggle.”
The Hamas terror group also hailed the two prisoners’ escape attempt, saying that arresting them would not “break their will.”
“They achieved honor by their successful escape operation, humiliating the occupying power and shattering its prestige. Arresting them will not wash away the shame of occupation, nor will it break [the two prisoners’] will. They will one day be free outside the jailer’s bars,” said Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanou.
Scattered rallies also took place in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The terror group described the protests as “spontaneous.”
Emanuel Fabian and agencies contributed to this report.
You’re serious. We appreciate that!
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we come to work every day – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Days into a national manhunt for six Palestinian security prisoners who escaped from a high-security prison in northern Israel, police captured two of the fugitives in Nazareth Friday night.
Hours later, two more of the escaped prisoners — including notorious terror commander Zakarai Zubeidi — were apprehended in the nearby town of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam.
The fugitives had managed to avoid capture since breaking out of Gilboa Prison early Monday and two of their fellow escapees remained on the run.
In Nazareth, police caught convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists Yaquob Qadiri and Mahmoud al-Arida, the latter of whom was reported to have masterminded the jailbreak.
Prior to their arrests, the two requested food from residents of Nazareth, but locals rejected their request and alerted police, according to Hebrew media. Some reports said residents noticed al-Arida and Qadiri digging through trash, apparently searching for food.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
Neither resisted arrest and video showed police putting the handcuffed detainees in patrol cars.
Police take Zakaria Zubeidi to a patrol car after he was captured in northern Israel after escaping from prison with other security prisoners, September 11, 2021. (Israel Police)
In the footage, an officer can be seen removing al-Arida’s shoes, with the Walla news site citing security sources saying a comparison of the soles to footprints found near Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam produced an exact match.
????????#Palestine || The Israeli occupation forces detained the prisoners Mahmoud Arda and Yacoob Qadri, who escaped from Gilboa Prison last week, in Nazareth city. pic.twitter.com/qq4ZfrQY6h
— ✌️????????✌️ Mohammed Najjar (@hamada_pal2020) September 10, 2021
Military trackers would use these footprints to help retrace the escape route of Zubeidi and Mohammed al-Arida, the reported mastermind’s younger brother. The trackers also reportedly found discarded cigarettes and a drink can that helped lead them to the two.
Police take Mohammed al-Arida to a patrol car after he was captured in northern Israel after escaping from prison with other security prisoners, September 11, 2021. (Israel Police)
A security source told the Haaretz daily that a resident of the area reported encountering the two on Friday evening as he rode an ATV and that Zubeidi asked for food.
Hours later, the trackers detected footprints, helping lead them to Zubeidi and al-Arida in a parking lot used by truck drivers. Al-Arida was found sleeping in a semi-trailer while Zubeidi was captured nearby as he wandered around exhausted, according to Hebrew media.
A security official said Zubeidi briefly tried to escape during the arrest operation, but was quickly overpowered. Photos from the scene showed Zubeidi with what appeared to be a large bruise on his face, but it was not clear if his was sustained during the arrest.
A local resident later told reporters that the two appeared scared and hungry when they were caught.
A man points at the spot where an escaped Palestinian security prisoner was recaptured in the northern Arab town of Shibli–Umm al-Ghanam on September 11, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Public Security Minister Omer Barlev vowed the remaining two fugitives would be caught and also thanked Arab Israelis “who assisted in the capture of the terrorists.”
“For four days the escapees wandered around believing they will find shelter and help among Arab Israelis, but the mistake was theirs,” Barlev tweeted.
Before the escape, Zubeidi, a commander in Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, was imprisoned prison while on trial for two dozen crimes, including attempted murder.
Mohammed al-Arida was arrested in 2002 on terror offenses and sentenced to life in prison while his brother Mahmoud al-Arida, considered a senior Islamic Jihad member, was jailed for life for terrorist activity, including attacks in which soldiers were killed.
Qadiri was also serving life terms for acts of terrorism including the murder of an Israeli in 2004. Both he and Mahmoud al-Arida were reportedly involved in a 2014 attempt to break out of Gilboa.
The two prisoners still on the run are Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, who like the other fugitives are from the area around the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Kamamji was serving a life sentence at the time of the escape for killing an 18-year-old Israeli in 2006, a murder he reportedly expressed pride in.
Nafayat has not been charged with a crime and was being held under Israel’s practice of administrative detention, which allows it to imprison suspects without filing charges for security purposes.
The six Palestinian security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa prison on Monday, September 6, 2021. Clockwise from top left: Yaqoub Qadiri, Mohammad al-Arida, Mahmoud al-Arida, Iham Kamamji, Zakaria Zubeidi, and Munadil Nafiyat (Screenshot: Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office)
For some Palestinians, the fugitives have been widely regarded as “heroes” who succeeded in freeing themselves from multiple life sentences.
Violent protests broke out at a number of locations in the West Bank after the announcement of the first arrests on Friday evening.
After the arrest of the first two fugitives, the Hamas terror group said their detention would not “break their will.”
Shortly afterwards, a rocket was fired from Gaza toward Israel, which was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The Israel Defense Forces said it responded with airstrikes on a number of terror targets in the enclave.
lamic Jihad also celebrated the escapees and warned Israel against any harm coming to them while in detention.
The six escaped from Gilboa Prison in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, making their way out through their cell’s drainage system and an empty space underneath the prison.
Police officers and prison guards inspect the scene of a prison escape outside the Gilboa prison in northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 6, 2021. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
Israeli forces have scrambled to find the inmates, all of them highly dangerous. In recent days, Israeli troops have arrested several of the fugitives’ family members, including five who were arrested in villages near the northern West Bank city of Jenin in the predawn hours of Friday morning, according to Palestinian media.
The escape exposed a series of failures at the prison and Barlev said Thursday that he had decided to form a government commission to probe the incident.
Among the apparent lapses were failure to learn lessons from previous escape attempts and several operational blunders, including unmanned watchtowers and sleeping guards.
