The former spymaster of Venezuela could end up being a star prosecution witness at Nicolás Maduro’s drug-trafficking trial, experts told The Post.
Hugo Carvajal — the country’s longtime spy chief, nicknamed “El Pollo” or “The Chicken” — pleaded guilty in June to narco-terrorism, weapons and drug trafficking charges in the same case that Maduro was charged in.
And Carvajal — who flipped allegiance and backed Maduro’s opponent in 2019 — has already expressed interest in cooperating with the feds as he faces down the potential of life in prison at his sentencing, currently set for next month.
“This is exactly the type of person that would be a witness in the case,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post.
If he takes the witness stand and testifies truthfully, he would get a “significant reduction in his sentence,” Rahmani said.
“The sentencing [in drug-trafficking] cases are so high, so you have to cooperate,” the lawyer added.
Dick Gregorie — a prosecutor who handled a US case against another foreign leader, Manuel Noriega, in 1988 — agreed there is a “good possibility” Carvajal will be a prosecution witness.
“I would assume if he had a deal that he made six months ago, that they have probably been preparing him for weeks, or months, maybe,” Gregorie added.
Prosecutors will also have “a number of internal people from Venezuela and drug dealers who were involved in moving the drugs” as witnesses, he said.
With Post wires