— Venezuela’s central bank gold reserves fell from 105 tons in 2019 to 53 tons in 2025, despite ongoing extraction from the Orinoco Mining Arc — with investigations tracing the missing gold to Turkey, the UAE, Iran, and other intermediaries
— Alex Saab, Maduro’s former fixer turned minister, allegedly controlled the operation through Turkish shell companies that exchanged gold for overpriced food imports under Venezuela’s CLAP subsidy program
— Key figures in the scheme have been arrested or are under investigation in Venezuela, Turkey, Italy, and the United States in recent months, unraveling the network after Maduro’s capture in January
The Venezuela gold smuggling network that funneled tens of tons of central bank reserves through Turkey in exchange for overpriced pasta and powdered milk is unraveling. A detailed investigation by El País, corroborated by US Treasury documents, OECD reports, FDD analyses, and Turkish commercial records, has traced how gold owned by the Venezuelan people was shipped on Turkish Airlines flights, refined in Turkish facilities, and used to pay for food imports that enriched a small circle of insiders while ordinary Venezuelans starved. The trail runs through Istanbul, the UAE, Uganda, Iran, and possibly Russia — and it leads directly to Alex Saab, the Colombian-born businessman who became Maduro’s most powerful fixer. The Rio Times covers Latin American financial news and the corruption networks that shape the region’s economies.
Venezuela Gold Smuggling: How It Worked
The scheme began in earnest in 2016, when the Maduro government opened the Orinoco Mining Arc to gold extraction as oil revenues collapsed. By decree, extracted gold was to be processed through Mibiturven, a joint Turkish-Venezuelan mining venture, and deposited at the central bank. According to Transparency International, only about 30% of extracted gold actually reached the BCV. The rest left the country through a combination of Turkish Airlines cargo holds, private jets, and triangulated routes through third countries. UN trade data shows 23.6 tons of Venezuelan gold exported to Turkey in 2018 alone, with another 45 tons going to the UAE. By 2019, a further 7.3 tons were routed through Uganda before reaching Turkish refineries. After 2020, official exports collapsed to near zero — but the central bank’s reserves kept falling, from 105 tons in 2019 to 79 in 2021 and 53 in 2025, indicating the trade continued through unregistered channels.
The gold was refined at facilities including the Istanbul Gold Refinery (IAR) and a plant in Çorum province owned by businessman Ahmet Ahlatcı, who had accompanied President Erdoğan on a 2018 state visit to Caracas. As Maduro and Erdoğan agreed, refined gold would be deposited in Turkey’s central bank as advance payment, then drawn down as Turkish companies shipped food to Venezuela. The food — spaghetti, lentils, rice, powdered milk, canned tuna — was purchased by the Venezuelan state for its CLAP subsidized food program at prices that multiple sources describe as significantly inflated, enriching the intermediaries while 54% of Venezuelan children suffered malnutrition according to Caritas.
The Saab Network Unravels
At the center of the Venezuela gold smuggling operation sat Alex Saab, who controlled both sides of the transaction through family-linked Turkish shell companies. Mulberry Proje Yatırım, founded in Istanbul in 2015, handled food exports to Venezuela; its ultimate beneficiary was Patrizia Fiore, aunt of Saab’s wife Camilla Fabri. Marilyns Proje Yatırım, registered at the same address, was the Turkish partner in the Mibiturven mining joint venture; its sole shareholder was Fabri’s brother-in-law, Lorenzo Antonelli. Italian court documents found six-figure payment orders on family members’ phones routed through Turkish banks, including one for €720,000 ($756,000) labeled as payment for “ketchup and mayonnaise” to a Turkish gold trading company. Mulberry eventually moved its headquarters to the Trump Towers in Istanbul — a building from which the Trump Organization collects licensing fees.
The network has collapsed rapidly since Maduro’s capture by US forces in January. Saab was dismissed as minister and arrested in Caracas, reportedly with US cooperation. He and Fabri received prison sentences in Italy in October for money laundering. Turkey’s IAR refinery was raided and its owner arrested for fraud and capital laundering. Ahlatcı is under travel restrictions pending prosecution. Betsy Desiree Mata Pereda, Saab’s associate who ran Mulberry, notified Turkish authorities in December that she was leaving the country and returning to Venezuela. The question investigators across multiple jurisdictions are now pursuing is how much of Venezuela’s stolen gold — and potentially billions in cryptocurrency converted from gold proceeds through Turkish and Emirati intermediaries — can ever be traced and recovered.