After a more than ten-year campaign by the Department of Justice to get him on US territory, a former director of Venezuelan military intelligence pleaded not guilty to US drug trafficking charges on Thursday
Hugo Carvajal, 63, was extradited from Spain and landed in the United States on Wednesday.
He made the plea during a hearing in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart Aaron.
He was jailed, and his next court appearance was scheduled on July 25.
Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, Carvajal’s lawyer, said he will file an application for his client’s release on bail at a later date. Carvajal, according to Margulis-Ohnuma, is “categorically innocent” of the charges.
“General Carvajal looks forward to fighting these outrageous charges in court before an unbiased American jury,” Margulis-Ohnuma said following the hearing.
Federal prosecutors say Carvajal – who was late President Hugo Chavez’s eyes and ears within the South American country’s military for more than a decade – in 2006 coordinated the shipment of 5,600 kg (1,235 pounds) of cocaine to Mexico from Venezuela.
The drugs were ultimately bound for the United States, according to prosecutors.
Nicknamed ‘El Pollo’, the chicken, Carvajal took part in the failed 1992 coup that lifted Chavez to political prominence and is considered one of the most powerful figures of the socialist leader’s 1999-2013 rule./Reuters
