Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was once convicted in New York on Friday of conspiring with drug traffickers to allow tonnes of cocaine to be smuggled into the USA.
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was once convicted Friday in New York of fees that he conspired with drug traffickers and used his army and nationwide police drive to allow tonnes of cocaine to make it unhindered into the USA.
The jury returned its verdict at a federal court docket after a two-week trial, which has been carefully adopted in his house nation. Hernández was once convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the USA and two guns counts. The fees lift a compulsory minimal of 40 years in jail and a possible most of existence. Sentencing was once set for 26 June.
Hernández, 55, served two phrases because the chief of Honduras, a country of more or less 10 million other folks.
Jurors reached a unanimous verdict, which was once important for a conviction. Defence legal professional Sabrina Shroff stated Hernández will attraction the conviction.
In a free up, US legal professional Damian Williams stated he hopes the conviction “sends a message to all corrupt politicians who would consider a similar path: choose differently.”
He added that Hernández “had every opportunity to be a force for good in his native Honduras. Instead, he chose to abuse his office and country for his own personal gain and partnered with some of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organisations in the world to transport tonnes of cocaine to the United States.”
Hernández was once arrested at his house in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, 3 months after leaving workplace in 2022 and was once extradited to the USA in April of that yr.
US prosecutors accused Hernández of running with drug traffickers as way back as 2004, announcing he took thousands and thousands of greenbacks in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress after which to the rustic’s easiest workplace.
Hernández stated in trial testimony that drug cash was once paid to nearly all political events in Honduras, however he denied accepting bribes himself.
He famous that he had visited the White House and met US presidents as he solid himself as a champion within the conflict on medication who labored with the USA to curb the drift of substances to the USA.
In one example, he stated, he was once warned through the FBI {that a} drug cartel sought after to assassinate him.
He stated his accusers fabricated their claims about him in bids for leniency for his or her crimes.
“They all have motivation to lie, and they are professional liars,” Hernández said.
But the prosecution mocked Hernández for seemingly claiming to be the only honest politician in Honduras.
During closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant US Attorney Jacob Gutwillig told the jury that a corrupt Hernández “paved a cocaine superhighway to the United States.”
Stabile said his client “has been wrongfully charged” as he urged an acquittal.
Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and said Hernandez was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life prison term in the US.
Hernández, wearing a suit throughout the trial, was mostly dispassionate as he testified through an interpreter, repeatedly saying “no sir” as he was asked if he ever paid bribes or promised to protect traffickers from extradition to the US.
ADVERTISEMENTHis brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, was once sentenced to existence in 2021 in Manhattan federal court docket for his personal conviction on drug fees.
