Venezuela: On 25 June Venezuela’s former military intelligence chief, Hugo ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal (2004–2011, 2013-2014), pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in the US. In 2023 Carvajal was extradited from Spain to the US where he was indicted in 2020, along with Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and other top Maduro allies, of charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. According to a US Department of Justice (DoJ) statement, the US accuses Carvajal of collaborating with the Venezuelan drug trafficking organisation (DTO), Cártel de los Soles, and Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), to import cocaine into the US. According to the DoJ statement, in 1999 Carvajal and “other high-ranking Venezuelan government and military officials acted as leaders and managers” of Cártel de los Soles. It adds that he “held multiple positions of public trust in Venezuela” which he exploited to benefit the DTO, including as director of the intelligence service. According to the same statement, one of Carvajal’s co-defendants in the case, Cliver Antonio Alcalá, was sentenced in April 2024 to a term of 260 months in prison, after pleading guilty to providing material support, including firearms, to the Farc. Other co-conspirators remain at large. Carvajal is due to be sentenced on 29 October.
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