NEW YORK, March 31, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Honduran President Juan Orlando
Hernandez’s brother was sentenced to life in prison by a New York judge
Tuesday for large-scale drug trafficking after a trial that implicated the
leader of the Central American country.
Tony Hernandez, 42, was found guilty in October 2019 on four counts —
including conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, possessing
machine guns and making false statements.
Judge P. Kevin Castel said a life sentence for the former Honduran
congressman who trafficked more than 185 tons of cocaine into the United
States, some branded with his initials “TH,” was “richly deserved.”
President Hernandez, however, described the ordeal as a scandal, calling
the sentencing “outrageous” and stating that it was “incredible that the
false testimonies of confessed murderers are heard and valued in this way,”
referring to some of the convicted killers who served as witnesses.
Prosecutors had demanded life in prison, stressing that Tony Hernandez had
“shown no remorse” and was “a central figure in one of the largest and most
violent cocaine trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
His defense team had called for the mandatory minimum sentence of 40
years.
Hernandez, who served as a member of the Honduran Congress from 2014 to
2018, was arrested at a Miami airport in November 2018.
His family in Honduras also insisted on his “innocence” Tuesday evening,
and said that he would appeal, in a statement released by the Honduran
presidency.
– Co-conspirator –
During the trial, US prosecutors said President Hernandez had been a “co-
conspirator” in his brother’s crimes, although he has not been formally
charged by the US judicial system.
Government attorneys said the president took millions of dollars in bribes
from drug lords including jailed Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
President Hernandez has repeatedly denied all allegations of drug
trafficking. A lawyer who came to power in January 2014 and is in his second
term, Hernandez has styled himself as a champion in the fight against drugs.
During his brother’s trial the US government successfully argued that Tony
Hernandez was a large-scale drug trafficker who worked from 2004 to 2016 with
others in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico to import cocaine into the US by
plane, boat and submarine.
Hernandez made millions of dollars from the trafficking and used the
proceeds to influence three presidential elections, according to US
attorneys.
The prosecution also said Hernandez was involved in at least two murders
of rival drug traffickers in 2011 and 2013.
Defense lawyers unsuccessfully questioned the credibility of witnesses,
many of them former drug traffickers, some of whom had been convicted of
murder.
US prosecutors have aggressively pursued current or former Honduran public
officials and their relatives over drug trafficking allegations.
Earlier this month, a New York jury found Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, an
alleged associate of President Hernandez, guilty of drug trafficking.
During his trial, US prosecutors said the Honduran leader had helped
Fuentes smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States, an allegation the
president described as “obvious lies.”
Guzman, the former co-leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa drug cartel, was
convicted in New York in February 2019 of smuggling hundreds of tons of
cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana into the United States.