HONDURAS -- Honduras extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States on Thursday to face drug trafficking and weapons charges in a dramatic reversal for a leader once touted by U.S. authorities as a key ally in the war on the drugs.
In court documents, U.S. prosecutors alleged Hernandez was involved in a"corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy" that moved more than 550 tons of cocaine to the United States. He 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.
Hernández was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa in February at the request of U.S. authorities. He was shackled and paraded in front of journalists, a sight many Hondurans never imagined seeing."Drug trafficking fuels violent crime and addiction; it devastates families, and it ravages communities," Garland 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.
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.
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