Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, Narco-Terrorism, Weapons, and Drug Trafficking Charges, New York 2024
Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, 73, a former Venezuelan general, pleaded guilty to narco-terrorism, weapons, and drug trafficking charges in a New York court.
The defendant, who was once the director of Venezuela's military intelligence agency, was accused of leading the Cartel de Los Soles, a powerful drug trafficking organization that flooded the United States with cocaine and supported the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a violent terrorist organization.
According to the indictment, Carvajal Barrios coordinated with other members of the Cartel de Los Soles to dispatch a 5.6-ton cocaine shipment from Venezuela on a DC-9 plane bearing a United States registration number in or about 2006.
As alleged in the Superseding Indictment, Carvajal Barrios held multiple positions of public trust in Venezuela that he exploited to benefit the Cartel de Los Soles, including as director of the Direccion de Inteligencia Militar (DIM) between approximately 2004 and 2011, and again in 2013.
Carvajal Barrios was accused of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, engaging in narco-terrorism for the benefit of the FARC, and related weapons offenses.
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Robert Murphy, announced the guilty plea.
Carvajal Barrios will likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison. His sentence is pending.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Organized Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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