News24com Venezuela ex-intel chief wanted by US detained in Spain
A former general has been arrested.
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Carvajal, who served as intelligence chief under the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was detained on Thursday night in Madrid, Spain's National Police said in a tweet.
"He lived totally cloistered, without going outside or looking out the window, and always protected by trusted people," it added alongside a short video showing officers in protective gear arresting Carvajal.
Carvajal went missing just days after a Spanish court in November 2019 approved a request for his extradition to the US on drug trafficking charges.
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Police had gone to his house in Madrid at the time to arrest him but could not find him, and his lawyer denied knowing where he was.
Known as "El Pollo" (the Chicken), Carvajal was stripped of his rank by the administration of President Nicolas Maduro after coming out in support of Juan Guaido as Venezuela's acting president in February.
Providing support to drug trafficking
He then fled by boat to the Dominican Republic before relocating to Spain.
Carvajal has long been sought by US Treasury officials who suspect him of providing support to drug trafficking by the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia.
In an indictment filed in New York in 2011, Carvajal was accused of coordinating the transport of more than 5.6 tons of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006 that was ultimately destined for the US.
And the grand jury also accused Carvajal of providing "heavily-armed security to protect these drug shipments" en route to the US.
If convicted, Carvajal could face between 10 years and life in prison, the US Justice Department said following his April arrest.
Carvajal has denied any links to drug trafficking and the FARC.
In September 2019 Spain's National Court rejected a US extradition request on the grounds it was "vague" and "politically-motivated", and instead ordered Carvajal's release from provisional detention where he had been held since his 12 April arrest in Madrid.
The ruling drew a protest from the US State Department, which said it hoped the judges would "reconsider" their decision.
The court then reversed that decision in November after accepting an appeal from the public prosecutor's office but Carvajal then went on the run.
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