Hugo Chávez’s Head of Intelligence Pleads Guilty to Drug and Arms Trafficking

Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, the intelligence chief who served under former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and arms trafficking in New York on June 25.

Carvajal, whose full name is Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein on several counts, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, participation in narco-terrorism on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and possession and conspiracy to possess firearms, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

“Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios exploited his position as the director of Venezuela’s military intelligence and abandoned his responsibility to the people of Venezuela in order to intentionally cause harm to the United States,” said Robert Murphy, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, following Carvajal’s guilty plea.

For the charge of conspiracy to import narcotics, the minimum sentence is 10 years in prison, the charge of narco-terrorism carries a minimum sentence of 20 years, and the charge of possession of firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, carries a minimum sentence of 30 years.

All three charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Barrios, 65, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29.

“After years of trying to evade law enforcement, Carvajal Barrios will now likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison,” Murphy said, according to the statement.

“As evidenced in this case, the DEA will relentlessly pursue anyone who uses violence, drugs, and intimidation to compromise the safety and security of the United States.”

From approximately 1999, Carvajal, who headed the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, along with other senior Venezuelan government and military officials, acted as leaders and managers of the Los Soles Cartel, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ noted that the Venezuelan cartel, in addition to seeking to increase its power and enrich its members, “flooded” the United States with cocaine.

It explained that to achieve this, the leaders of the Los Soles Cartel partnered with leaders of the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization responsible for the production and distribution of most of the cocaine destined for the United States.

Carvajal’s involvement with FARC was to coordinate multi-ton drug shipments, provide heavily armed security to protect the drug shipments, and arm FARC with automatic weapons and explosives “to further the group’s drug trafficking and terrorist activities.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said that Carvajal “was once one of the most powerful men in Venezuela.”

“For years, he and other officials in the Cartel de Los Soles used cocaine as a weapon—flooding New York and other American cities with poison,” Clayton said.

“In doing so, Carvajal Barrios partnered with a deadly terrorist group to support their combined drug trafficking and terrorism efforts, wreaking havoc on communities throughout the United States and elsewhere.”

After several attempts to extradite him, Carvajal was extradited from Spain on July 19, 2023, as part of the indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.