CARACAS, Venezuela — The head of Venezuelan military intelligence was on the payroll of a Colombian drug lord, invested his own money in drug shipments and personally coordinated the shipment of thousands of kilograms of cocaine, according to prosecutors in Miami and New York.

And Venezuela’s liaison with Interpol took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from another trafficker, the Miami prosecutors said.

Three federal indictments unsealed last week open a window onto accusations of ties between Venezuelan military and law enforcement officers and Colombian narcotics traffickers, a connection that officials in Washington have long warned about and that has been roundly dismissed by the authorities here.

The cases came to light after the authorities in Aruba last week arrested the former military intelligence chief, Hugo Carvajal, at the request of the State Department. Mr. Carvajal was released Sunday and sent back to Venezuela, to the consternation of American officials, who wanted to have him extradited, and the delight of Venezuelan authorities, who had called his arrest a kidnapping.