Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted on drug trafficking charges Friday in a Manhattan federal court.
Hernandez, who served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, had been charged by U.S. authorities with drug trafficking and weapons offenses that linked him to tons of cocaine imported into the United States over the last two decades. Prosecutors say he accepted bribes from El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel and other drug networks.
The former U.S. ally had presented himself as a partner of the United States on crime, drugs and immigration policies while U.S. law enforcement was secretly investigating him over involvement in the drug trade, federal prosecutors said.
Two co-defendants pleaded guilty, including a former Honduran police chief, Juan Carlos Bonilla, and Hernandez’s cousin Mauricio Hernandez.
In this Nov. 1, 2021, file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez presents his national statement during day two of COP26 at SECC, in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Pool via Getty Images, FILE
The former president claimed the prosecution was the result of drug traffickers smearing him to get revenge for his crackdown on the drug trade.
The U.S. Justice Department said he and his conspirators trafficked over 400 tons of U.S. bound cocaine through Honduras under Hernandez’s tenure in government.
“Juan Orlando Hernandez 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,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “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.”
Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26. He faces up to life in prison.
-ABC News’ Victoria Moll Ramirez contributed to this report.
