The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) declared the extradition requested by Venezuela to the Kingdom of Spain to be handed over to Julio Esteban Rincón Araujo, who is wanted for alleged arms trafficking.
Such decision is contained in sentence No. 10 issued on February 5 with the signature of the three magistrates who are members of the Criminal Chamber: Elsa Gómez, Carmen Marisela Castro and Maikel, who was the drafter of the sentence.
That ruling details the details of a raid carried out at the Caliber Shooting Academy, located in Maracaibo (Zulia), under an investigation opened by the Directorate against Money Laundering, Financial and Economic Crimes of the Public Ministry. That academy opened its doors in June 2024.
The investigations begin under the presumption that the directors of the academy belong to an organization called Caliber, “whose objective is to promote the use and practice of firearms in different modalities using private facilities (shooting range) and using as a maneuver the instruction of private classes in said establishment (Caliber Academy) under the premise of promoting the practice of the so-called sports shooting, seeking in this way to attract citizens and/or officials from different security agencies and government institutions and infiltrate them to undermine, attack and ignore the fundamental bases of the Venezuelan State.”
Said raid on the aforementioned academy was carried out by agents of the Bolivarian National Police assigned to the Directorate of Strategic and Tactical Actions of the State of Zulia. In the weapons warehouse, officials located 13 firearms that did not have the corresponding permit from the Directorate of Weapons and Explosives (Daex). They also found a card issued by the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian Armed Forces (Ceofanb) that accredited as a special agent one of the directors of the Caliber Shooting Academy identified as Jhon Henry Monnott García, who was arrested that day of the raid, along with Humberto Juan Urdaneta Durán.
And the third director of the aforementioned academy is Juan Esteban Rincón Araujo, who was arrested in Spain and as a result of which the Criminal Court agreed to his extradition. This procedure is based, among others, on the arrest warrant issued on November 22, 2024 against Rincón Araujo by the 2nd Special Court of Control with Jurisdiction in cases related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism with National Jurisdiction and Jurisdiction to hear and decide on Crimes Associated with Corruption and Organized Crime. The crimes for which the aforementioned arrest warrant is issued are: terrorism, criminal association and trafficking in weapons and ammunition, the ruling says.
On January 26, this extradition procedure was activated, because the International Police (Interpol) previously informed Venezuela on the 14th that said body had captured the Venezuelan Rincón Araujo in Madrid, Spain, in response to a Red Notice filed by Venezuela in December 2025.
The magistrates verified that in this case the requirements demanded in the extradition treaty signed between Spain and Venezuela are met, for which they gave approval.
Those 400 rifles
In September 2024, the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, reported at a press conference the seizure of 400 rifles that illegally entered Venezuela sent from the United States. From other sources we learned that part of these weapons entered through Maracaibo (Zulia). “Imagine criminal groups with this firepower… who were they going to hand it over to? To the gangs. They counted on the gangs to generate chaos, violence and anarchy,” explained Minister Cabello, who identified Ivan Simonovis and María Corina Machado as the promoters of these violent plans. Then, in November, Cabello denounced that the Zulian businessman José Rincón, based in Spain, was linked to these violent projects.
