The inner circle of Hugo Chávez has ties to cocaine trafficking, an alleged Venezuelan drug lord has charged – and he claims to have the video to prove it.

Walid Makled, who is jailed and awaiting extradition from Colombia to Venezuela, said he has « conclusive evidence » of drug corruption in the inner circle of Hugo Chávez’s ruling elite.

The alleged drug kingpin, however, said in an interview that he would only disclose his information to U.S. prosecutors. American authorities assisted in his arrest last year.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, seeking to improve what had been rocky relations withChávez, announced in November that he would extradite Makled to Venezuela. Chávez asked first and Makled faces more serious charges, including murder, in Venezuela, Santos said.

Several key U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern that Makled will be silenced once back in Venezuela and the opportunity lost to expose monumental corruption in that country’s ruling circles. International law enforcement officials say that under Chávez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment country for Colombian cocaine.

Makled was arrested in August in Colombia with the help of U.S. drug agents a little more than a year after the White House designated him an international kingpin.

He has spoken in prison with U.S. officials, American and Colombian officials have told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. But the information he has provided on high-level Venezuelan corruption, one U.S. official said, would not likely be admissible as evidence in a U.S. court.

Makled has indicated he prefers to return to Venezuela, where the government jailed his three brothers on cocaine-trafficking charges shortly after one of them ran for mayor of the northern provincial capital of Valencia without the blessing of the Chávez camp.

In an interview from Bogota’s Picota prison broadcast by Univision, Makled said he paid $5.5 million in 2005 or 2006 to Venezuela’s current navy commander for a major warehouse concession at the country’s main port of Puerto Cabello — which is also Venezuela’s maritime drug smuggling nexus.

5,5 millions !!!

Makled offered greater detail on the number of recipients of the $1 million in payoffs he said he made monthly to senior Venezuelan military commanders. He said the recipients numbered 40, including generals, colonels and majors.

Makled said he didn’t recruit the military officials : « It was more like they recruited me. »

ET CHAVEZ N’AURAIT PAS ETE AU COURANT ?