Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez indicted on US drug charges

District attorneys say he got millions of dollars to safeguard drug traffickers.April 22, 2022, 2:16 AM – 5 min readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleFormer Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has actually been charged by U.S. authorities with drug trafficking and weapons offenses that presumably link him to lots of drug imported into the United States over the last two decades.Three federal charges– conspiring to import drug, using and bring device guns in furtherance of cocaine importation, and conspiring to bring and use gatling gun in furtherance of cocaine importation– are included in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday that portrays Hernandez, the previous two-term president of Honduras, as a leader on the take.U.S. Attorney General Of The United States Merrick Garland revealed Thursday that Hernandez has been extradited to the United States, where he is expected to be arraigned Friday in New York.Hernandez, according to the indictment, “abused his position as the president of Honduras to run the country as a narco-state in order to enrich himself and corruptly gain and maintain power; corrupted the legitimate institutions of Honduras, including parts of the Honduran National Police, military, and National Congress; and, while publicly claiming to be an ally of the United States, contributed with his co-conspirators to Honduras turning into one of the biggest trans-shipment points in the world for United States-bound cocaine.”Hernandez, known informally as JOH, was repeatedly called in the trial in 2015 of Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, who was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted on charges that, in part, accused him of paying allurements to Hernandez.Prosecutors state that Fuentes Ramirez existed when President Hernandez presumably said he wished to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” as they plotted to send out as much cocaine as possible into the United States.Hernandez has denied the accusation that he made the declaration and outlined versus the U.S.Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez provides his national statement throughout day 2 of COP26 at SECC, Nov. 1, 2021, in Glasgow, United Kingdom.In addition to Fuentes Ramirez, Hernandezs brother Tony, a Honduran congressman, was founded guilty in 2019 of drug trafficking charges and lying to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. He was also sentenced to life in prison.Hernandez had been an unindicted alleged co-conspirator in his siblings case while in workplace– however prosecutors waited up until he ran out workplace this previous January to secure his arrest, simply weeks later.The charges against the previous president date from 2004 to February 2022, when Hernandez was jailed by Honduran authorities at the demand of the United States. The unsealing of the indictment Thursday accompanied his arrival in the Southern District of New York, where he will be prosecuted.As a Honduran congressman, as president of the Honduran National Congress, and as president of the country, Hernandez was supposedly paid millions of dollars in cocaine proceeds that he used to enhance himself, to finance his political campaigns, and to commit citizen scams, while individuals of Honduras endured poverty and violence, the indictment said.In 2013, Hernandez presumably accepted a kickback of $1 million from El Chapo to protect the Sinaloa drug cartels activities in Honduras, the indictment said, including that Hernandez supposedly sent associates equipped with machine guns to gather the funds.Other traffickers supposedly paid Hernandez for security, and he used the cash to “ensure his ongoing ascendancy in Honduran politics,” according to the indictment. To make certain he won the governmental elections of 2013 and 2017, Hernandez presumably directed others to pay off politicians and election authorities with drug profits, federal district attorneys said.If convicted, Hernandez deals with a maximum sentence of life in jail.