Cosmetic surgery, companion dog and moving every 3 months: the life of a fugitive in Madrid from “El Pollo” Carvajal

Wigs, a fake mustache, plastic surgery and a safe new home every three months: these are some of the tools of deception which, according to the Spanish authorities, are a former Venezuelan spy master used to escape capture with a US warrant for narco-terrorism.

General Hugo Carvajal’s two-year manhunt ended on Thursday evening when police raided a dilapidated apartment in a quiet area of ​​Madrid where they found the fugitive in a back room with a sharp knife in what they described as a last desperate attempt to escape arrest.

Nicknamed “El Pollo”, Carvajal has been a thorn in the side of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. (DEA) since 2014, when he was arrested in Aruba with a US warrant just for be released after the government of Nicolás Maduro pressured the small Dutch Caribbean island to release him.

He returns to Caracas as an anti-imperialist hero, but is quickly relegated to a minor role in the ruling Socialist Party. Then, In 2019, he broke with Maduro amid a wave of anti-government unrest, urging fellow military officers to pledge allegiance to Juan Guaidó., the leader of the opposition that the United States had just recognized as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

He resurfaced in Europe months later, received at Madrid airport by two Spanish intelligence agents after going there with a false passport., the agency previously reported PA. From there, he hoped to continue plotting against Maduro.

Corn was forced into hiding a second time after the National Court of Spain ruled in 2019 that he is expected to be extradited to New York to face federal charges that he worked with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to flood the United States with cocaine.

As I was running away it is said to be in Portugal, then a hiding place in the Caribbean. Some Venezuelans, always ready for a good conspiracy, believed that he was already on American soil spreading secrets about the involvement of the Venezuelan military in drug trafficking, or that he had returned to Caracas for amend the government he had promised to overthrow. Others have speculated that he was protected by Spain’s left-wing government, which has strayed from harsh American policies that seek to isolate Maduro.

The reality was much simpler: the 61-year-old coach had never left Madrid. His last hiding place was only 2.5 kilometers from the national police headquarters.

“If they really manage to extradite him this time around, it will be a spectacular way to show how justice beats diplomacy and intelligence operations.Said Dick Gregorie, who, as federal prosecutor in Miami, also indicted Carvajal on drug trafficking charges.

Gregorie compared Carvajal to another spy chief he investigated, the former Panamanian strongman General Manuel Noriega. The two men, he said, were able to strike deals on all sides while spoiling the quest for justice.

“He could have been sent here several times, but for various reasons that were not disclosed he was allowed to go,” said Gregorie, who is now retired. “Corn he is probably the most knowledgeable accused of all the corruption and dirty acts that have taken place in Venezuela for a decade ”.

The capture of Carvajal appears to have been possible thanks to intelligence provided by the DEA in June., according to a document published on Friday by the Spanish newspaper The world. In the confidential two-page letter, Dustin Harmon, a DEA attaché in Madrid, provided police with the name and contact details of a Venezuelan woman who he said owned and lived in the apartment where Carvajal was hiding . .

Harmon’s letter also alerted Spanish authorities that Carvajal was known to wore wigs and other costumes, in addition to undergoing plastic surgery, to avoid detection.

Spanish police said that a dog was the constant companion de Carvajal in what would otherwise be a very lonely and restricted life.

“He changed hiding places every three months, using the properties in which he lived cloistered, without going out, for fear of being publicly recognized.Police said in a statement.

Anchored in the art of espionage, He often changed phones and relied on others to deliver food. He only breathed fresh air at night, when he entered the green balcony of his apartment in disguise, police said he told them at the time of his arrest.

Video released by Spain’s National Police on Friday showed special forces break into the apartment, where the fugitive’s presence had gone unnoticed even by those who shared the 12-story building.

The United States had offered $ 10 million for the arrest of Carvajal, repeatedly announcing the reward as bait in the hope that someone from Carvajal’s inner circle would betray him.

Corn it is not immediately clear if someone has abandoned it. His wife Angélica Flores, who lived in Madrid with the couple’s five children and other relatives, provided little information.

“I am prepared for any situation, good or bad,” she told the PA when she was contacted by phone with the news. “It’s up to him and others to make statements. This matter will continue and we will see how it ends. “

The case against Carvajal in New York City centers on a DC-9 plane from Caracas that landed in southern Mexico in 2006 with 5.6 tons of cocaine packed in 128 suitcases. He faces incriminating evidence from phone records, drug records and the testimony of at least 10 witnesses, including former members of the so-called “Suns Cartel,” made up of corrupt Venezuelan military officers involved. in drug trafficking, according to an affidavit. accompanying the indictment.

The New York prosecution also reiterates that Carvajal provided automatic weapons and protection to Colombian rebels inside Venezuela.

“Carvajal is the key link that can explain trade deals between Colombian guerrillas, Mexican drug cartels, and other criminal organizations in the United States and Europe.”said Martin Rodil, a Washington-based security consultant for US law enforcement who has worked on several Venezuelan cases. “He was the hinge between all of these groups.”

The former general mocked the allegations. He says his contacts with the FARC, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, were authorized by Chávez and were limited to securing the release of a kidnapped Venezuelan businessman and paving the way for peace talks with the Colombian government. Also He maintains that legal investigations in Venezuela and Mexico have never linked him to the cocaine-laden plane and that the owner of the plane supports his alibi.

The extradition order against Carvajal follows a legal battle in which Spain’s National Court overturned an earlier decision by a higher court magistrate dismissing the US order on political grounds. While, Carvajal was released and fled when told he would be detained again. He was not heard except when he said last year that he was going underground to protest what he saw as political interference in his case.

He resurfaced on social media earlier this month, posting what could be a glimpse of his possible defense: a statement accusing former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, who for years was the main guardian of the United States in the war on drugs, of “fabricating” evidence against him and the Chávez government even when he cooperated with US prosecutors to arrest Colombian drug traffickers hiding in Venezuela

“It is a lie that will eventually fall apart,” Carvajal wrote. “I always believed that the truth would prevail.”

(By Aritz Parra and Joshua Goodman – AP)

Read on: