Photo: Jorge Cabrera / Getty Images
Officials from the Department of Justice revealed on Thursday the charges of drug trafficking and firearms against former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, accusing the former leader of the Honduran government as a participant in a plan to flood the United States with tons of cocaine.
Federal officials allege that Hernández “abused his positions in the Honduran government to partner with some of the largest and most violent drug traffickers in the world to traffic hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine through Honduras for distribution in the United States,” the Department of Justice reported in a statement.
Juan Orlando Hernández, alias JOH, of 53 years, will make his initial appearance on Friday 22 April, before Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron in New York federal court, after being extradited today to the United States from Honduras.
Hernandez allegedly received millions of dollars from drug traffickers, including former Sinaloa Dartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo Guzmán,” to use his public office, law enforcement, and the military to support drug trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere.
“The Department of Justice is taking a comprehensive approach to protecting our communities and our country from violent crime,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Department is committed to disrupting the entire ecosystem of drug trafficking networks that harm the American people, no matter how far or how high we must go” .
The fi Attorney General Merrick Garland said the former president operated Honduras like “a narco-state.” Among the millions in alleged bribes, Garland said that Hernández received at least one million dollars from El Chapo to finance his electoral campaign.
“In exchange, drug traffickers in Honduras were allowed to operate with virtual impunity.” Garland said. “We allege that Hernández corrupted legitimate public institutions in the country, including parts of the national police, the military, and the national Congress. And we allege that Hernández worked closely with other public officials to protect cocaine shipments destined for the United States.”
Among those officials there was the brother of the former president, Tony Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2019 in Manhattan and sentenced to life sentence.
“Because of these alleged crimes, communities in the United States suffered and the people of Honduras suffered,” Garland said.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams described the level of public corruption that allegedly facilitated the operation as “impressive”.
The crimes he is accused of in the United States are:
The first charge against Juan Orlando Hernández charged by the United States is “conspiracy to i import a controlled substance” into that country, with the “knowledge that said substance would be illegally imported” into United States territory, “into waters at a distance of 12 miles off the coast of the United States”.
In addition, he is charged with “manufacturing, distributing, and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance aboard an aircraft registered in the United States.”
The second accusation is for “using or carrying weapons of fire, or aid and abet the use, power and possession” of “machine guns and destructive devices”.
The third indictment refers to a “conspiracy to use or carry firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, during and in connection with with or possessing firearms, including machine guns and target devices in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics”, according to the United States authorities.
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– Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández was extradited to the US where he is accused of drug trafficking– Juan Orlando Hernández: Supreme Court of Honduras ratifies extradition to the US. of the former president
– Why The US requested the extradition of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández