Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios

Editorial illustration: Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios

Original editorial portrait guided by a published image; no violent imagery.

Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, known as “El Pollo,” is a former Venezuelan military intelligence chief prosecuted in the United States for narcotics and weapons offenses. U.S. authorities accused him of using official power to support cocaine trafficking and FARC. Spain extradited him in July 2023. In June 2025, the Justice Department announced that he pleaded guilty to cocaine-importation conspiracy, Narcoterrorism benefiting FARC and related weapons offenses. His case concerns his own conduct and should be distinguished from broader allegations involving other Venezuelan officials or Hezbollah.

Military intelligence and early allegations

The U.S. extradition announcement described Carvajal as director of the Dirección de Inteligencia Militar, Venezuela’s military intelligence agency, from approximately 2004 to 2011. Prosecutors alleged that he exploited access to state institutions and intelligence to support traffickers. InSight Crime’s 2022 report recounts a 2008 Treasury designation alleging that he protected FARC drug shipments, supplied weapons and government identification documents, and facilitated operations in a border region. Those historical allegations preceded the later U.S. criminal disposition.

From protection to participation

InSight Crime interprets the successive allegations as describing a shift from protection services to participation in the drug trade. Its account of an indictment drawn up in 2013 says prosecutors alleged a relationship with Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel beginning around 2004. The alleged services included protection from arrest and information about counternarcotics operations; the later account included sales of cocaine and investment in shipments. This is the report’s reading of the charging history, not an assertion that every shipment moving through Venezuela belonged to Carvajal.

The Cártel de Los Soles allegations

Prosecutors placed Carvajal within the alleged Cártel de Los Soles, named for the sun insignia of senior Venezuelan military officers. Their 2023 announcement described officials corrupting institutions to facilitate cocaine imports into the United States and partnering with FARC leaders. It also gave a specific example: an alleged 5.6-ton shipment dispatched from Venezuela aboard a private jet in 2006 and seized in Mexico. The network description and the shipment allegation form related parts of the prosecution narrative, but neither identifies that cocaine as a Hezbollah shipment.

The same announcement alleged that Carvajal attended a 2008 meeting with a FARC representative at which cash and weapons were promised in return for increased cocaine production. The stated organizational beneficiary in that allegation was FARC. InSight Crime separately discussed the alleged 2013 Air France shipment, involving 1.3 tons seized in France, in its account of Carvajal’s charging history. These incidents have different dates, routes and factual descriptions and should not be combined into a single shipment total.

Spain and the United States

Carvajal was arrested in Spain on September 9, 2021, according to the Justice Department. On July 19, 2023, he was extradited to the United States to face proceedings in the Southern District of New York. The announcement identified Narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy and related machinegun and destructive-device offenses. It described charges and potential penalties at that stage, not an imposed prison sentence.

The 2025 guilty plea

On June 25, 2025, DOJ announced Carvajal’s guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. It identified cocaine-importation conspiracy, Narcoterrorism for FARC’s benefit and related weapons offenses. This later development changes the account from one based solely on charges and extradition to one including an admitted criminal outcome. The plea announcement is not itself a sentencing judgment, and this entry does not convert a possible statutory penalty into a sentence imposed.

The separate Hezbollah-related account

Carvajal also appears in the 2020 complaint against Adel El Zabayar. That complaint recounts an alleged 2009 Syria meeting involving Carvajal, El Aissami, Nasr al-Din and a Hezbollah operative, including a proposal for Hezbollah personnel to work with FARC in Venezuela. Its footnote preserves Carvajal’s reported claim that he objected to inviting Hezbollah. This account and response remain relevant to the research, but Carvajal’s 2025 FARC-related plea should not be rewritten as an admission to every Hezbollah allegation in another defendant’s complaint.

Regional interpretation

INSS’s analysis describes Iran’s cooperation with Venezuela as part of a broader diplomatic and military strategy in Latin America. That provides context for why alleged Middle Eastern contacts appear alongside Venezuelan political and security biographies. It does not identify the beneficiary of a particular cocaine shipment. Carvajal’s individual case is clearest when it follows the named counterparties, specified shipments, extradition and guilty plea, while keeping the separate regional allegations attributed to their sources.

References

Legal and sanctions status as of 9 October 2026.