The former chief of Venezuela’s navy intelligence – and the highest-ranking navy officer to defect to the US-backed opposition – has been nabbed in Spain on a US warrant for allegedly trafficking tons of cocaine.
Hugo Carvajal was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on Friday and faces extradition to the US, the place he was indicted in 2014 for allegedly having “coordinated the transportation of roughly 5,600 kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.” He will testify in a Saturday court docket look as as to whether he needs to combat the extradition, an official with Spain’s National Court informed the AP.
The Venezuelan ex-major basic, whose nickname “el Pollo” means “the Chicken,” is accused of defending a Colombian drug kingpin from arrest, permitting him to maneuver about 5,600kg of cocaine in and out of Venezuela, and tipping him off to legislation enforcement actions. Carvajal allegedly was not solely paid off by the kingpin and different members of his group, but in addition invested in a number of the drug shipments. He can also be accused of offering weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
While Carvajal served as chief of navy intelligence and counterintelligence below former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, he reportedly started to distance himself from Chavez’s successor President Nicolas Maduro after returning to Venezuela in 2014 from Aruba, the place he had been briefly detained on the identical US warrant, going through extradition till Maduro threatened retaliation in opposition to the island.
Carvajal left Maduro’s authorities in 2017, ostensibly in protest over the president’s plans to type a constitutional meeting that would scale back the ability of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, and declared his allegiance to opposition chief and self-appointed president Juan Guaido in February, blaming Maduro for the “disastrous actuality” of Venezuela. Last month, the president expelled Carvajal from the armed forces, accusing him of “acts of treason in opposition to the fatherland.”
Since embracing the US-backed Guaido, Carvajal has known as on different members of the Venezuelan navy to hitch the opposition, warning them in opposition to changing into “collaborators” of a “dictatorial authorities that has plagued individuals with distress” and accusing navy leaders of being pawns of Cuba. He additionally gave a juicy interview with the New York Times, denouncing present and former members of Maduro’s authorities as drug traffickers, FARC and Hezbollah collaborators, and journalist blackmailers whereas denying his personal guilt on the most of the identical prices.