MADRID/NEW YORK The former head of Venezuela's military intelligence, Hugo Carvajal, who is wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges, has left Spain under a High Court extradition order, his lawyer and a court source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Carvajal is expected to arrive in the United States later in the day and could make an initial court appearance on Thursday morning, his lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, said.

On Tuesday, the Spanish court ordered Carvajal's immediate extradition after the European Court of Human Rights last week rejected his last attempt to avoid being sent to the United States.

Nicknamed 'El Pollo', the chicken, Carvajal - who was late President Hugo Chavez's eyes and ears within Venezuela's military for more than a decade - had been in Spanish custody since he was arrested in September 2021 in Madrid.

The United States in 2020 accused Carvajal of drug trafficking, along with more than a dozen other high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including President Nicolas Maduro. Carvajal has denied supporting cocaine trafficking to the United States.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo in Madrid and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by William Maclean and Mike Harrison)