Carlos Orense Azocar, an alleged Venezuelan drug trafficker, was extradited at the end of June from Italy to New York, in the United States. He is considered one of the main logistics operators of the Cartel de Los Soles and they assure that he had a direct relationship with the highest leadership of the criminal organization.
The citizen, who faces drug trafficking charges that carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison, worked closely with the also accused Venezuelans Pedro Luis Martín and Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal.
“He is the great operator of the Cartel de Los Soles. He is the man who manages the logistics of the cartel, the one who moves the drug,” he told the newspaper. New Herald one of the people who assisted in the investigations.
If a cooperation agreement is reached with the Prosecutor’s Office, Orense could provide the US Justice with new details about the cartel’s leaders and operations. The source assured that this man managed about 40% of the 40 tons that the criminal organization sends monthly.
Known as El Gordo, he was arrested in Italy in May 2021 and requested for extradition shortly after by the United States, where he was transferred in the second week of June. Orense appeared before a federal judge for the Southern District of New York, and pleaded not guilty to the charges filed on the 23rd of that month.
The sources said that Orense worked as a customs inspector at the Maiquetía International Airport before beginning to work with Martín, a former director of the counterintelligence unit of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, who has been facing drug trafficking charges before the Miami Prosecutor’s Office since 2015. .
“He has between 15 and 20 years in drug trafficking. He went on to work in the operations headed by Pedro Luis Martín and Pollo Carvajal,” a former Venezuelan police official told The New Herald.
Orense was the one who coordinated the shipments, was in charge of the logistics of the money and the logistics of sending the drug packages abroad, the source said.
According to US prosecutors, Orense participated in a criminal enterprise from 2003 to 2021, in Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico along with other conspirators who violated US laws against drug trafficking.
