Fugitive businessman captured in Venezuela bribery case

A Colombian businessman, long sought by the United States over bribery allegations involving Venezuelan state contracts, is now in American custody. In a separate development, the war in Ukraine has entered a new technological phase, with both sides fielding drones equipped with artificial intelligence for battlefield use.

Fugitive Businessman Captured

Alvaro Pulido, a 62-year-old Colombian national, was taken into U.S. custody after an investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations. Pulido had been indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of a probe into his business partner, Alex Saab, a former ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Prosecutors allege Pulido and Saab created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies. In exchange, they allegedly secured more than $2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine, and low-cost housing during a period of widespread hardship in Venezuela. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated the alleged actions showed "a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs." Pulido was previously arrested in Venezuela in 2023 during a corruption crackdown inside the state oil company PDVSA, which was led by then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. Rodríguez, now Venezuela's acting president following the U.S. military's ouster of Maduro in January, has been silent on the arrest. Her silence reflects the challenge of appeasing factions within the ruling coalition who oppose U.S. efforts to apprehend Venezuelan insiders wanted for crimes ranging from corruption to drug trafficking.

Alex Saab, also from Colombia, was deported to the U.S. by Rodríguez in May and pleaded guilty in a related bribery case in September. He agreed to cooperate against Maduro and others and to forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds. The U.S. attorney's office for the southern district of Florida noted Pulido had a prior history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under an alias. American officials had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest. Pulido was scheduled for an initial court appearance in Miami.

AI Drones in Ukraine War

Both Russian and Ukrainian forces are now using drones powered by artificial intelligence on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that AI could start leading battlefield decisions as early as next year.

One of Ukraine's top producers of these systems is a defense tech firm led by 37-year-old computer scientist Yaroslav Azhnyuk. Before the war, Azhnyuk co-founded Petcube, a company known for making smartphone-controlled cameras to watch and entertain pets. After Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, he shifted focus to defense. "I was like, OK, I got to move on from my role as a CEO of Petcube and do something to protect my country," Azhnyuk said. His companies, The Fourth Law and Odd Systems, now develop autonomous drones and thermal cameras.

The firm has created a widely used strike drone called the Lupynis-10-TFL-1. It combines a small, affordable first-person-view (FPV) drone with an autonomous terminal guidance system. An onboard computer and AI technology take control during the final flight phase. Azhnyuk explained this AI uses simple tools to recognize images, allowing the drone to navigate autonomously without a human or to choose a target autonomously. He emphasized it is very different from the complex AI used in data centers or self-driving cars. Dozens of Ukrainian military units already use this autonomous drone, which is named after 20th-century Ukrainian poet Anatoliy Lupynis. Azhnyuk stated that Ukraine will produce over 7 million FPV drones this year alone, calling them a major battlefield technology for this era.