Wigs, false mustaches and plants on the terrace: this is how Pollo Carvajal hid “like a ghost”

The terrace of the apartment was full of large plants that made it difficult to see inside. But despite that barrier behind which he was hiding from outside eyes, Hugo Armando ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal -fled since 2019-, one of the fugitives most wanted by the US and Spanish authorities, was even more meticulous: he never left the rooms main house, and if he did, it was only at night and to take the air, always behind the vegetation of the balcony of a third floor of number 123 of Torrelaguna street (Madrid).

And always, always in disguise camouflaging their looks under false mustaches and wigs. During the day, it never occurred to him to set foot outside.

For months the agents of the Group of Fugitives of the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) The Central National Police knew, for sure, that in that area of ​​the capital of Spain, very close to the National Police complex in the Canillas neighborhood, ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal was hiding.

Over the last few years, information of all kinds had reached them that indicated very different whereabouts: from countries on the other side of the Atlantic to other cities in the Spanish geography.

The truth is that, according to sources close to the investigation to EL ESPAÑOL, the exboss of Hugo Chávez’s secret services in Venezuela, claimed by the United States for drug trafficking and money laundering, did not pass more than three months in the same apartment.

Carvajal had been shooting secretly for two years through different buildings in the four cardinal points of Spain. But now he was in Madrid, where the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency) found him in late spring. I know He was located on a third floor in that neighborhood, and since then UDYCO has focused on locating him.

“Like a ghost”

A first clear clue was when the agents in charge of the case noticed noise inside an apartment in which, supposedly, no one lived anymore. They spent a whole morning waiting crouched at the doors of the building, deployed with their eyes fixed on the third floor of the building. Agents of the National Police and the DEA, scattered around the area, remained with their eyes fixed on the windows of the building.

Hours passed before they saw him, nervous, lean out through one of the windows and found that he was the person they were looking for.

Carvajal was claimed internationally for the United States for a crime of drug trafficking and was initially arrested in Spain in 2019, which proceeded to process his extradition. Some time later, he managed to escape and remained, until now, his whereabouts unknown.

But he was close, very close, to the base of operations from which they had been tracking him for two years. And this Thursday morning, the agents obtained the key information. They all moved to the place. They assembled the device. The agents sent were dressed in civilian clothes. And after long hours of surveillance, at noon, ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal got nervous and the viewers hunted. Investigators saw signs that he is inside.

The fugitive had been living for months “like a ghost”: he never went out into the street, he lived totally cloistered, with a dog as only company, in that spacious apartment. The neighbors did not know him. Nobody recognized his appearance. They had never seen him. They did not even imagine that this house could be occupied.

A “trustworthy” woman

No one else was in the house at the time of the arrest. His only contact with the outside world was a woman, of Venezuelan nationality, of your absolute confidence. The apartment was rented in her name and she was the one who gave him the necessary coverage. The one who took care of him and did the shopping for him.

After carrying out the pertinent procedures, the investigators requested the presence of the Police Intervention Unit (UIP), better known as riot control, to access the interior of the floor. At 9:15 p.m., there was a knock on the door and no one answered. They insisted, but ‘El Pollo’ still didn’t respond. It was then that they took hold of the ram and broke down the door. Only some of the neighbors timidly looked out to see what was happening.

Once inside, the agents went through the house without seeing anyone. There were no voices. Until they reached the last room of the house, where they found the fugitive, dressed in a blue T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, and they shouted “on the ground! On the ground!”

And Carvajal obeys, and is calm at first and hardly says anything. He accepts defeat while the agents verify that, inside the house, he has everything he needs to live without leaving the tranquility of his lair. Even, gym weights and various equipment to exercise daily. He has a neat appearance, very similar to the one he kept the last time he was seen, two years ago, before his escape.

Some time later, the agents asked him if he is vaccinated, if he has already been immunized against the coronavirus. ‘El Pollo’ responds: “No, I have not been vaccinated, I was not going to make it so easy for you.”

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