Alejandro Betancourt's tentacles in Spain run deep. The Venezuelan businessman who amassed a fortune following his country's energy crisis at the end of the last decade has seen his wealth grow further after the Trump administration touched him with the oil wand, entrusting him with crude oil exploitation as part of a deal with Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez. The billionaire's assets in Madrid alone are far from modest, according to police documents forming part of his money laundering investigation. Police seized five luxury cars, a United Arab Emirates residence card and 17 weapons at his exclusive Toledo estate.
The documents being revealed by EL PAÍS detail how the operation organized by Switzerland and Spain's Police and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office carried out a series of court-ordered searches on August 28 of last year targeting the billionaire, who remains under investigation in Spain for money laundering and tax evasion. Six agents from the Economic and Financial Crime Unit (UDEF) arrived at the Alamín estate — located 55 kilometers from Madrid in the province of Toledo — armed with a warrant issued by National Court judge Santiago Pedraz. The property, valued at more than 25 million euros and spanning 1,440 hectares, was purchased by Betancourt in 2012. Police note that although the castle is registered under the company Inversiones Agrícolas Trieste, it is in fact where the Venezuelan businessman resides when he is on Spanish soil.
The tycoon has been in the crosshairs of Spanish justice since June 2025, when the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office filed charges against him, his associate Pedro Trebbau and four other individuals for allegedly channeling into Europe money derived from "a fraud" worth 4.35 billion dollars (3.778 billion euros), stemming from a loan between state oil company PDVSA and the private firm Administrador Atlantic. Specifically, prosecutors believe Betancourt allegedly laundered a portion of this money — the exact amount yet to be determined — through investments in Spanish companies and real estate.
Police searched six addresses in Spain, including Alamín Castle, to follow the money trail. At Betancourt's property they found several luxury vehicles: two Porsche Cayennes, a third Porsche bearing Venezuelan license plates, an unregistered Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and a Mini Cooper Cabrio. Officials consulted their Swiss counterparts on whether to seize them, and three of the vehicles were deemed of interest to the investigation.
The Venezuelan vanished, according to sources close to the investigation, once the UDEF entered the grounds. Agents had been conducting surveillance and knew he was at Alamín, but upon making their way through the gardens, only his wife and sister were present. This did not halt the search, which was documented in a police report. In the mother's bedroom, they found a residence card in the businessman's name issued by the United Arab Emirates, dated December 6, 2023 through December 5, 2025, and in another room they discovered a wine cellar containing "an undetermined number of bottles of wine and alcoholic beverages."
The property has a room "configured as a gun room" that, according to the police account, was "locked," but was opened by a man of about 42 years old who stated he was "responsible for custody of the key to the gun room." He said he did not know what was inside, and once the Police opened it, they found 17 weapons (13 rifles and four shotguns) "without the corresponding documentation" and registered in the name of a third party, M. E. G. R. They also found three weapon silencers and various ammunition. The only cash found was 8,600 US dollars.
Betancourt's networks in Spain extend to some well-known figures within the Partido Popular and an editor at a well-known general media outlet, according to sources familiar with the investigations. The castle is not the only opulent property. On the border between Madrid and Toledo, the Casa de Yeguas de Alamín was also searched, where the UDEF found only "tools," "agricultural materials," "warehouses and stables in a state of abandonment," "old furniture," and "remnants of agricultural products." Additionally, 60 cows and two fighting bulls.
Through his companies, the Venezuelan owns two other apartments in the capital in two luxury areas — one facing the Puerta de Alcalá and another on the Paseo de la Castellana. There too, officers found nothing noteworthy. In one of the apartments, inside the dressing room of the master bedroom, they examined two safes embedded in the wall — one behind a mirror and the other "after moving a piece of furniture." The Police's Operative Group for Technical Interventions (GOIT), which specializes in this type of opening, found nothing beyond an empty Cartier-branded envelope.
Part of what was seized was forwarded to the Swiss investigation, while the Spanish case has barely advanced since then. Judge Pedraz attempted to close it on one occasion after Betancourt presented a document in which Venezuela exonerated him there of the alleged corruption offenses involving PDVSA. If no illicit origin for the money can be established — in this case, embezzlement from the oil company whose funds allegedly served to enrich the accused — it would be impossible to prove that the investments in Europe were made to launder that money. The Criminal Chamber of the Audiencia Nacional ordered the judge to reopen the case and to wait for the United States to provide testimony from five key witnesses. These are five individuals who have already been convicted there under the scheme known as Money Flight, which acknowledges that payments were made to PDVSA officials in order to extract money from the oil company through a concealed operation.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecution maintains that if these individuals testify in the Spanish case, the predicate offense would be established and it would be possible to dig deeper into the money laundering by Betancourt and his circle, while he rejects any corruption accusations and has submitted Venezuelan documentation seeking exoneration. Washington, which has made the Venezuelan its point of contact with Delcy Rodríguez, has gone months without responding to the Audiencia Nacional's request for judicial cooperation — which is not only stalling the investigation, but has given it an expiration date. Judge Pedraz has stated that if he receives no response by December, he will close the investigation against the billionaire.
