Former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez has been convicted to 45 years in jail and given an possibility of $8 million superb by a US Court docket for drug trafficking offenses.
Hernandez had beforehand denied the fees in opposition to him and at his sentencing on Wednesday, insisted on his innocence, claiming to be “wrongly and unjustly accused.”
A jury in New York had in March discovered Hernandez responsible on three counts of drug trafficking costs after a two-week trial in Manhattan federal courtroom.
He was extradited from Honduras after the US Division of Justice filed three drug-trafficking and firearms associated costs in opposition to him in 2022.
Prosecutors accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels throughout his tenure as they moved greater than 400 tons of cocaine via Honduras towards america, including that the previous president obtained tens of millions of {dollars} in bribes that he used to gas his rise in Honduran politics.
Hernández was president of Honduras from 2014 till 2022.
Throughout his years in workplace, he “protected and enriched the drug traffickers in his internal circle,” the Justice Division stated, citing his use of government energy to assist extraditions to the US of sure drug traffickers.
Prosecutor added that along with his grip on energy Hernández promised drug traffickers who paid him and adopted his directions that they might stay in Honduras.
Prosecutors additionally stated that members of the conspiracy wherein Hernández participated relied on the Honduran Nationwide Police to guard cocaine shipments as they moved via the nation.
In an announcement, US Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland stated Hernández “abused his place as president of Honduras to function the nation as a narco-state the place violent drug traffickers have been allowed to function with digital impunity, and the folks of Honduras and america have been pressured to undergo the implications.”