Juan Orlando Hernandez, Ex-Honduras President, Faces Drug, Weapons Trafficking
Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was president of Honduras for eight years, arrived at an airport north of New York City in handcuffs Thursday as he was extradited to face charges in a sweeping narcotics and federal drug trafficking investigation.
Hernandez, who has strongly denied any wrongdoing, was escorted under heavy guard by Drug Enforcement Administration agents to an SUV waiting to take him to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of his initial court appearance.
That appearance in New York’s Southern District is expected at some point Friday.
Juan Orlando Hernandez will face drug trafficking charges after being brought to New York.
The extraordinary sight of a former head of state in handcuffs, escorted onto a waiting U.S. government plane by agents of the DEA, followed the arrest of Hernandez in February at his home in Tegucigalpa.
It was less than a month after he stepped down from office.
Now he’s in New York to face charges.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernandez “abused his position as President of Honduras from 2014 through 2022 to operate the country as a narco-state.”
(For more in Spanish from Honduran newspaper Diario La Prensa on Hernandez’s arrest, click here)
The charges said he received millions of dollars for shielding the drug traffickers from arrest and for facilitating their shipments.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that Hernandez “partnered with some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire” that trafficked hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine to the U.S.
One of those alleged partners was the notorious El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel now in prison in the U.S. Prosecutors said that as Hernandez was campaigning for president in 2013, he accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo, as he promised the drug lord would be able to continue operating in Honduras.
“Hernandez is alleged to have used his vast political powers to protect and assist drug traffickers and cartel leaders by alerting them to possible interdictions, and sanctioning heavily-armed violence to support their drug trade,” Williams said.
In another meeting he held with a violent and large-scale Honduran cocaine trafficker, Hernandez took bribes to ensure drug trafficking could continue and to provide protection. The then-president even recommended the drug lord partner with another trafficker so that they all could “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” according to prosecutors.
A Honduran judge ruled last month that he could be extradited to the U.S.
Getty Images Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez is escorted by Members of the Police Special Forces to be extradited to U.S.to face charges of taking bribes from drug traffickers at Honduran National Directorate of Special Forces on April 21, 2022 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. (Photo by Jorge Cabrera/Getty Images)
Hernandez faces cocaine trafficking and weapons charges, which could land him in prison for life, if convicted.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram called…
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