El Pollo Carvajal pleads not guilty before a judge in the United States

The former Venezuelan general Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal appeared this Thursday for the first time before a judge of NY after his extradition on Wednesday from Spain for charges of drug traffickingamong others, and pleaded not guilty, witnesses in the courtroom told EFE.

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Judge Aaron Stewartof the Federal Court for the Southern District of New Yorkin Manhattanwho limited himself to reading the charges, set a new date for July 25, the day he will appear before the judge who will take his case, Alvin Hellerstein.

The hearing lasted barely 20 minutes, and carvajal He appeared dressed in khaki pants and a white T-shirt, with a calm face.

For his part, the lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohmuna He asked for a medical analysis, which was granted by the judge.

Upon leaving the court, Margulis Ohmuna reiterated the innocence of carvajal –“He is categorically innocent”– and added that the Prosecutor’s Office does not have evidence against him such as text messages, emails or recorded conversations, videos or any other physical evidence.

The lawyer also added that, unlike other cases of notorious drug trafficking cases, such as the case of the Mexican Genaro García Luna (former Secretary of Security of Mexico, pending conviction), in the case of carvajal there is no “evidence of inexplicable wealth (of provenance),” in a text he prepared and delivered to informants.

“He General Carvajal he always lived modestly with his family (…) and in his professional career he acted in the interest of Venezuelan democracy and at the service of the legitimate and democratically elected government of Venezuela at that time”during the presidency of Hugo Chavez.

Likewise, he stressed that carvajal He became a representative in his country but then broke with Chávez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro.

The US Attorney’s Office claims to have evidence of Carvajal’s participation in sending a shipment of 5.6 tons of cocaine that were transported from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006.

In March 2020, the Government of USA imputed to carvajaltogether with the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduroand the first vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), God given hairconsidered the number two of Chavismo and other Venezuelan leaders.

The US government accuses them of participating in a corrupt narco-terrorist conspiracy and violence in which the Los Soles Cartel and the Colombian FARC guerrilla allegedly participated.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Ripe helped and ultimately led said drug trafficking group through which he became rich and “flooded” USA with drugs, “using cocaine as a weapon against USA”.

In addition, carvajal and the rest of the defendants are accused of having acted as “leaders and administrators” of the Cartel de los Soles and a “narcoterrorist conspiracy” with the FARC.

Hugo Armando Carvajalwho fled Venezuela with a false passport in 2019, had been in preventive detention in Spain for more than two years due to the patent risk of flight, since his whereabouts were unknown for almost two years, between 2019 and 2021.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.