Narco, Terror, and Politics in Southwestern Europe (6/10)

Second arrest of Hugo ‘El Pollo‘ Carvajal in Madrid, Spain

To everyone’s surprise, on September 9th, 2021, for a second time General Carvajal was arrested in Madrid.

In March 2020, the United States (US) Government had announced that it would reward with $10 million any information that might facilitate his apprehension.

At the end, Carvajal was not in the US negotiating the terms and conditions of his surrender to the US Justice and he was not in a safe house in the Spanish side of the Pyrenees Mountains, protected by the Spanish National Intelligence –Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), in its original name-, and closely monitored by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Carvajal was in Madrid, close to his wife, Angélica Flores, and his eight children.

2021 Carvajal arrest was facilitated by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

According to the contents of a letter dated June 17th, 2021, that Madrid’s DEA Station Head addressed to the Spanish Police, the DEA knew where ‘El Pollo’ was located -just another apartment in the urban centre of the city.

The DEA had also collected and shared with the Spanish security forces all kinds of details, even the smallest ones, of what was happening inside that apartment and the names and particulars of his caretakers as well, including the fact that Carvajal had undergone a cosmetic surgery operation and used wigs and fake moustaches and beards to disguise himself.

Agents who arrested him inside that apartment said that Carvajal confessed to them that he had lived totally cloistered -without ever leaving or looking out the window- and was always protected by people he trusted.

‘El Pollo’ Carvajal also blurted out to the Police officers who arrested him that during his two years on the run he had, in fact, remained in Spain, changing hiding places regularly, living without being even able to get out to the street, and in fear of being recognized, since his image had been widely disseminated.

Nevertheless, the Spanish authorities were not expeditious in fulfilling the DEA’s request for cooperation.

It is surprising that three months passed between the DEA communication being receipt by the Spanish police and Carvajal’s arrest.

It is said in Madrid that at one point, the DEA had realized that their letter to the Spanish Police did not provoke the expected reaction from the Spanish Government.

Hence, according to this interpretation of events, the US Government felt compelled to send an additional and last warning, a very energetic one, giving Spanish national authorities the last chance to do what they had to do or, otherwise, to accept the consequences*.

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* “La DEA localizó a ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal en Madrid tras hacerse una operación de cirugía estética y llevar peluca”, El Mundo, September 10, 2021; and “Álvaro Nieto: «De Plus Ultra y del Delcygate solo hemos visto la punta del iceberg»”, The Objective, February 2, 2022.

NB: All information and data about the facts and people in this article were taken from open and public sources, which are cited here. Any errors they may have made are not attributable to the author of this article, but to those of the publications from which they were taken. This series of articles was completed on July 29, 2022.