Former Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal, head of military intelligence under Hugo Chavez, was held in temporary detention Saturday while Spain waits for a formal US extradition request on charges of cocaine trafficking, judicial sources said.
Carvajal, dubbed "El Pollo" (The Chicken), was taken into custody Friday at his son's home in Madrid by Spanish police. He made headlines recently by voicing support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. A judge at a Spainish federal court decided to place Carvajal in provisional detention, while the United States files a "formal extradition request" to judicial authorities, the sources said.
The former army general "denied having links to drug trafficking and the FARC" guerrilla group in Colombia, they added. He refused to be handed over to US officials and argued that he now has family ties to Spain. In a statement, the US Justice Department said if convicted, Carvajal faced a sentence of between 10 years to life in prison over the charges of conspiracy to import more than five tonnes of cocaine into the United States.
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