Former Honduran president sentenced to 45 years for helping traffickers get tons of cocaine into U.S.
A defiant former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in New York Wednesday to 45 years in prison for teaming up with some bribe-paying drug traffickers for over a decade to ensure over 400 tons of cocaine made it to the United States.
Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández, 55, to 45 years in a U.S. prison and fined him $8 million, saying that the penalty should serve as a warning to “well educated, well dressed” individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.
A jury convicted him in March in Manhattan federal court after a two-week trial, which was closely followed in his home country.
At: https://apnews.com/article/honduras-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-corruption-3f98be974c58bb8a1b492108c4a7f297
Good boy: Disgraced former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was welcomed by then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017.
The right-wing Honduran leader, long seen by most neo-cons as a "U.S. ally," had privately promised to "shove the drugs up the Gringos' noses."
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's a litttle bit of heaven seeing this dirtbag being outed and actually sent "up the river." 
Thank you for this huge ray of sunshine, peppertree! 
EDUARDO MUNOZ
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Jeff Ernst
Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking by a New York judge on Wednesday. Hernández, 55, was president of Honduras for two terms from 2014 to 2022, during which he was considered a staunch U.S. ally in the war on drugs even after his own links to traffickers became apparent, such as in the 2019 trial of his brother and close political operative Tony.
“For more than a decade, the defendant abused his political power to operate Honduras—a country of roughly ten million people—as a narco-state,” said U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, in the government’s sentencing submission.
“The defendant engaged in this egregious conduct while publicly posing as an ally of the United States in its efforts to combat the importation of narcotics that destroy countless lives in this country. But behind closed doors, the defendant protected the very traffickers he vowed to pursue,” said Williams, omitting the favorable treatment that the White House gave Hernández during that same period.
In March, a jury found Hernández guilty on drug trafficking conspiracy and two related weapons charges, following a nearly three-week trial that reiterated the well-known symbiotic relationship between drug traffickers and politicians in Honduras. During Wednesday's hearing, he maintained his innocence, citing his cooperation with U.S. authorities and anti-drug policies as proof. His lawyers had requested that he receive a minimum sentence of 40 years.
. . .
In 2017, Hernández sought reelection despite a constitutional prohibition against it. By then, rumors of his brother Tony’s and his own links to drug traffickers were the topic of much debate in Honduras. The 2017 election was marred by violence and allegations of fraud, but Hernández ultimately declared himself the winner and received crucial support from the United States to legitimize his victory.
More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202406/centroamerica/27475/in-45-year-drug-sentence-us-judge-calls-joh-a-two-faced-politician-hungry-for-power