"Pollo Carvajal" arrested for drug trafficking in Madrid 0:53
(CNN Spanish) -
The asylum request that Hugo Carvajal presented in Spain in the second quarter of 2019 was rejected in September of the same year, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry told CNN.
The information has already been provided to the National Court of Spain, says the same source, in order to expedite the process of handing over the former director general of Military Counterintelligence of Venezuela to the United States, where he is claimed for alleged drug trafficking crimes, among others.
The National Court suspended on Tuesday the process of handing over Carvajal, already approved by the court in November 2019 and by the Council of Ministers in March 2020, arguing that it did not know at what point the detainee's asylum process was.
After confirming that it was rejected, a spokesman for the court told CNN that the extradition could be made effective once the rest of the appeals and measures presented by his defense before the National Court and the Supreme Court have been resolved.
The National Police arrested Carvajal on Thursday, September 9 in Madrid in a joint operation with the United States Anti-Drug Agency (DEA).
Who is Hugo Carvajal?
1:28
The arrest responded to a request from the National High Court in November 2019, which then agreed to the extradition to the United States of the retired major general of the Venezuelan Army.
advertising
The capture of Carvajal was a challenge for the National Police after his escape in November 2019 after the decision of the National Court, as detailed by the security body in a press release.
How Carvajal hid
According to the authorities, Carvajal concealed his identity by undergoing "various cosmetic surgery operations to modify his appearance" and would have used "all kinds of disguise elements to facilitate his concealment, among which mustaches, beards and false wigs were detected. ”.
To these obstacles, the National Police adds the lack of property or material goods in Carvajal's name that would help locate him, as well as that it used “several of the consorts as interposed figures of their entire confidence, with the sole purpose of trying to pass unnoticed by the security forces and bodies and not leaving any trace that allows identifying their presence in national territory.
According to the National Police in the same press release, several agents of the Spanish security force were able to enter the house where Carvajal was hiding after obtaining the corresponding entry and registration authorization from the guard court.
The entrance was not easy, as they detailed, since they had to tear down an armored door in the surroundings of a fortified floor.
It was in one of the last rooms of the house that they found Carvajal locked up, in an alleged "desperate attempt to avoid police arrest."
Justice of Spain suspends delivery of Hugo Carvajal to the United States
The agents of the Police Intervention Unit who carried out the operation had to neutralize and shackle him after removing a sharp knife, according to the account detailed in the press release of the National Police.
After Carvajal's arrest, the police force reported that he acknowledged having remained in Spain at all times and that, every three months, “he changed his hiding place using different addresses where he lived completely cloistered, without going out into the street at any time, frightened by the public diffusion of his image ”.
His arrest was received by surprise, according to his lawyer, María Dolores de Argüelles, who said that her client pleads not guilty to the charges for which the United States claims, and for that reason on Friday they presented very precautionary measures before the Supreme Court to prevent the extradition from taking effect.
Hugo Carvajalvenezuela