Ex-president of Honduras arrives in New York to face cocaine trafficking and weapons charges: Disgraced official once vowed to ‘stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos’

• Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was schedule to appear before a federal New York City court judge Friday
• Hernández was extradited to the United States on Thursday to face drug trafficking and weapons charges 
• U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernandez ‘abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state’
• Prosecutors also allege that the 53-year-old conservative politician fueled his career with the help of money provided by drug traffickers
• His brother, Juan Antonio Hernández, was convicted on drug trafficking and weapons charges in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison in March 2021
• During that trial it was revealed that Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán funded Juan Orlando Hernández’s presidential campaign in 2013
• Hernández’ case is set to be the highest profile drug trafficking trial held in the United States since El Chapo was convicted in 2019

Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández landed in New York on Thursday evening to face drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Hernández, who was once a United States ally in the war against transnational drug cartels, was scheduled to make his first appearance before a Brooklyn federal court judge Friday.

The disgraced former president allegedly conspired to traffic thousands of kilos of cocaine into the United States from 2004 to 2022, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors say Hernández promised to ‘stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,’ and received millions of dollars to ‘use his public office, law enforcement, and the military to support drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere.’

He was apprehended at his home in Tegucigalpa on February 15 after U.S. authorities filed an extradition request almost three weeks after the end of his eight-year presidential term. On Thursday, he was turned over to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, who flew him into an airport north of New York City.

Hernández is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. 

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York will be prosecuting the case.

‘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,’ U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (center) is taken in handcuffs to an aircraft at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Thursday moments before he was extradited to the United States

WNBC television cameras captured the moment former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández was escorted out of an airport north of New York City on Thursday following his extradition

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (third from the right) is escorted by security forces at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, moments before he was turned over to DEA agents Thursday 

According to U.S. prosecutors, Hernández was part of a ‘corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy’ that moved more than 550 tons of cocaine to the United States. 

The two-term president was charged with participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Prosecutors charge that Hernandez received millions of dollars from drug cartels, including from notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. 

During 2019 the trial of his former Congressman brother, Juan Antonio Hernández,  a key government witness testified before the New York court that Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán had contributed $1 million ahead of Juan Orlando Hernández’s 2013 presidential campaign in exchange for protection.

The future president sent his brother and an associate – who has not been identified – with machine guns to collect El Chapo’s payment.

Federal prosecutors allege he used that money to finance his 2017 presidential election and engaged in voter fraud. 

‘DEA’s multi-year investigation revealed that Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras, was a central figure in one of the largest and most violent cocaine trafficking conspiracies in the world,’ DEA administrator Anne Milgram said. ‘This case should send a message – to all political leaders around the world that trade on positions of influence to further transnational organized crime – that the DEA will stop at nothing to investigate these cases and dismantle drug trafficking organizations that threaten the safety and health of the American people.’ 

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (center) is accused of drug trafficking and firearms charges by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York 

Prosecutors also allege that  Juan Orlando Hernández (right) fueled 2013 and 2017 elections with the help of money provided by drug traffickers and drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán

‘We allege that Hernández corrupted legitimate public institutions in the country – including parts of the national police, military and national Congress.’

Honduras´ Supreme Court rejected his appeal of a judge’s decision in favor of extradition.

‘Drug trafficking fuels violent crime and addiction; it devastates families, and it ravages communities,’ Garland said. 

‘The Justice 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.’

Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán allegedly handed over $1 million to support the 2013 presidential campaign of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in exchange for protection of drug deliveries 

Juan Antonio Hernández (pictured in 2017) was convicted in a massive drug conspiracy case in a New York City federal court in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison in March 2021. He is the brother of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (pictured) said former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández ‘abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state’ 

Hernández has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. In a video message released Thursday, he said, ‘I am innocent; I have been and I am being unjustly subjected to prosecution.’

He has said he is the victim of drug traffickers he extradited who are now lying to seek revenge.

‘It is surprising that this decision … is made based on ‘media reports’ and also on statements from drug traffickers and confessed murderers who were extradited by my government, or who had to flee and surrender to the United States authorities for fear of being extradited,’ Hernández wrote in an open letter.   

Henry Osorto Canales, a retired National Police commissioner who is now an analyst, said that while the extradition was an embarrassment for Honduras, it was also a historic day.

‘This is a start because it has begun with the largest political piece that the country had and logically the rest of the pieces are going to fall, at least those closest (to Hernández),’ Osorto said.

U.S. prosecutors have spent years building cases from low-level drug traffickers and local politicians to organized crime bosses who used their political connections and ties to drug trafficking cartels in Colombia and Mexico to move tons of cocaine to the United States. 

Many of them testified about making payments to Hernández or one of his brothers, also a politician.  

Juan Antonio Hernández was found guilty by the Southern District of New York on drug trafficking and firearms charges in October 2019. He sentenced to life in prison in March 2021. 

Juan Orlando Hernández took office in January 2014 and held the presidency until January, when Xiomara Castro was sworn in as his replacement. Castro campaigned on rooting out Honduras´ corruption and Hernández was seen as the largest target.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, in chains, is shown to the press at the National Police headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, following his arrest on February 15

On Wednesday, Honduras’ Supreme Court denied an appeal from the former chief of the National Police, Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, better known as ‘El Tigre’ or ‘The Tiger.’ He was arrested after Hernández at the request of U.S. prosecutors on similar charges and is expected to be extradited in the coming weeks.

U.S. prosecutors allege Bonilla assisted the movement of tons of cocaine through Honduras, working with Hernández and his brother Tony Hernández, both co-conspirators in the case in the Southern District of New York.

Hernández´s transport via helicopter came under heavy guard from the police base where he was held to the airport and was covered live by local television outlets.

Some Hondurans stood outside the airport’s perimeter fence to catch a glimpse of the former president boarding the plane with U.S. authorities. When Hernández’s plane took off, some were seen jumping in celebration.

Thousands of their countrymen emigrated from the country during Hernández’s administration, often shouting ‘Get out JOH!’ using his initials as they walked north. They frequently complained of a lack of job opportunities and gang violence.

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