Honduras extradited to the United States former mayor Arnaldo Urbina Soto, accused of drug trafficking

Honduran authorities extradited the former mayor to the United States Arnaldo Urbina Sotoclaimed for three drug trafficking charges, and became the second Honduran handed over this year, an official source reported.

Urbina Soto, former mayor of the town of Yoro, in northern Honduras, was handed over to DEA members at the Enrique Soto Cano Air Base, in the center of the country, where the US maintains a small number of military personnel.

The alleged drug trafficker, handcuffed, boarded the US justice system plane dressed in a white biosafety suit, the director of Prevention and Community Safety, Miguel Pérez Suazo, told reporters.

He added that the former mayor became the second Honduran to be extradited to the US this year and the 37th since 2014.

Urbina Soto is “an objective of high strategic value” for the US and is considered by DEA agents to be “highly dangerous,” Pérez Suazo said.

The Southern District Court of New York accuses Urbina Soto of tThree charges associated with drug trafficking and the use of weapons to introduce drugs into that country.

The former mayor is accused of “conspiracy to import five kilograms or more of a substance that contains a detectable amount of cocaine and that is introduced into the United States, as well as using devices and weapons for this type of activity,” explained the director of Prevention and Community Security.

The detainee pleaded guilty in 2017 for the crime of money laundering to the detriment of the economy of the State of Honduras and in 2020 he was sentenced to 16 years in jail.

However, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras issued a “definitive dismissal” of Urbina Soto, although he was not able to get out of prison because a first instance judge had already authorized his extradition to the US in 2019.

Pérez Suazo affirmed that there are around 27 arrest warrants pending against the same number of people requested in extradition by United States authorities. The extradition of Hondurans at the request of other countries was authorized in 2012 after the approval of a constitutional reform.

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