US jury convicts former Honduras president on drug trafficking, conspiracy charges News
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US jury convicts former Honduras president on drug trafficking, conspiracy charges

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that a federal jury in New York convicted former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández on three charges for his involvement in a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme. 

The jury convicted Hernández on all three charges listed in his indictment. These charges included conspiring to import cocaine into the US, which would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. He was also charged with conspiring to and actually using machine guns during and in furtherance of the cocaine importation conspiracy. All three charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The court scheduled Hernández’s sentencing for June 26.

In response to the conviction, US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated:

Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences. As today’s conviction demonstrates, the Justice Department is disrupting the entire ecosystem of drug trafficking networks that harm the American people, no matter how far or how high we must go.

According to the indictment, from about 2004 to 2022, Hernández participated in a corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the US. He also received millions of dollars to use his public office, law enforcement and the military to support drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere.

In February 2022, Honduran authorities arrested and detained Hernández at the request of the US. In April 2022, Honduras extradited Hernández to the US for his trial after approval from the Supreme Court of Honduras.

Hernández is a longtime politician who served as president of the National Congress from 2010 to 2014 and then as president of Honduras from 2014 until January 2022. Around the time he stepped down, federal prosecutors alleged that Hernández had helped deliver thousands of kilos of cocaine into the US in exchange for bribes. The former president’s brother, Tony Hernández, is currently serving a life sentence in US prison for his involvement with drug trafficking.

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