MADRID (Reuters) – The former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence, Hugo Carvajal, who is wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges, has left Spain under a High Court extradition order, a court source told Reuters on Wednesday.
The source would not provide any further details.
On Tuesday, the court ordered that global police agency Interpol immediately extradite Carvajal, after the European Court of Human Rights last week denied him an effort to avoid being sent to the United States.
Carvajal – who was late President Hugo Chavez’s eyes and ears within Venezuela’s military for more than a decade – had been in Spanish custody since he was arrested in September 2021 in Madrid.
The United States in 2020 accused Carvajal of drug trafficking, along with more than a dozen other high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including President Nicolas Maduro. Carvajal has denied supporting cocaine trafficking to the United States.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Editing by William Maclean)
