Merrick Garland, the Attorney General of the United States, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Anne Milgram, the Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), introduced these days the unsealing of drug-trafficking and weapons expenses contained in a Superseding Indictment versus JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ, a/k/a “JOH,” the former President of Honduras. The case is pending just before U.S. District Choose P. Kevin Castel. HERNANDEZ, 53, a Honduran nationwide, is predicted to get there in the Southern District of New York currently and will have his first visual appeal tomorrow, April 22, 2022, in advance of Justice of the peace Decide Stewart D. Aaron.
From at minimum in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2022, HERNANDEZ, the former two-term President of Honduras, allegedly participated in a corrupt and violent drug-trafficking conspiracy to facilitate the importation of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States. HERNANDEZ allegedly obtained hundreds of thousands of pounds to use his community office environment, law enforcement, and the armed service to help drug-trafficking corporations in Honduras, Mexico, and somewhere else.
Legal professional Normal Merrick B. Garland said: “The Justice Division is getting a in depth solution to protecting our communities and our place from violent criminal offense. The Division is committed to disrupting the entire ecosystem of drug trafficking networks that damage the American individuals, no issue how significantly, or how superior we need to go.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claimed: “Juan Orlando Hernandez, the the latest previous President of Honduras, allegedly partnered with some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to establish a corrupt and brutally violent empire primarily based on the unlawful trafficking of tons of cocaine to the United States. Hernandez is alleged to have utilized his extensive political powers to guard and guide drug traffickers and cartel leaders by alerting them to doable interdictions, and sanctioning closely-armed violence to support their drug trade. I commend the career prosecutors of the Southern District of New York for their tireless attempts to disrupt the total illicit drug-trafficking ecosystem, from road-stage dealers to a previous environment chief, and all the things in-in between.”
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram reported: “Today’s extradition clearly reveals that the DEA will end at almost nothing to pursue the most potent political actors who interact in drug trafficking, violence, and corruption. DEA’s multi-12 months investigation unveiled that Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former President of Honduras, was a central figure in a person of the most significant and most violent cocaine-trafficking conspiracies in the planet. Hernandez used drug-trafficking proceeds to finance his political ascent and, the moment elected President, leveraged the Government of Honduras’ regulation enforcement, armed service, and economic means to additional his drug-trafficking scheme. This scenario should deliver a message—to all political leaders around the globe that trade on positions of affect to further more transnational organized crime—that the DEA will stop at practically nothing to examine these conditions and dismantle drug-trafficking corporations that threaten the protection and overall health of the American men and women.”
In accordance to the allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment, other court docket filings, and statements designed during court proceedings[1]:
HERNANDEZ secured some of the greatest drug traffickers in the entire world, which include his brother and previous member of the Honduran Countrywide Congress, Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado (“Hernandez Alvarado”), a/k/a “Tony Hernandez,” from investigation, arrest, and extradition triggered sensitive regulation enforcement and military services info to be offered to drug traffickers to help them in transporting tons of cocaine via Honduras, certain for the United States directed greatly-armed members of the Honduran Countrywide Police and Honduran army to defend drug shipments as they transited Honduras and sanctioned brutal violence.
As a Congressman, then the President of the Honduran Nationwide Congress, and lastly the two-time period President of Honduras, HERNANDEZ was allegedly paid out tens of millions of pounds in cocaine proceeds, which he utilized to enrich himself, finance his political strategies, and dedicate voter fraud although the people today of Honduras endured circumstances of poverty and rampant violence.
Because at minimum in or about 2004, drug-trafficking corporations in Honduras have worked with each other to acquire tons of cocaine sent to Honduras from, among the other areas, Colombia and Venezuela, by way of maritime and air routes. These businesses then transited the cocaine westward in Honduras toward its border with Guatemala and finally north to the United States. All through this time, associates of this conspiracy transported much more than 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras and into the United States. In order to be certain that these huge cocaine shipments safely handed through Honduras, the biggest drug-trafficking companies in the region acquired the assistance and direct safety of selected outstanding Honduran public officers, such as HERNANDEZ. In return, these traffickers paid thousands and thousands of bucks in bribes to HERNANDEZ and other general public officials.
As a Congressman and then President of Honduras, HERNANDEZ partnered with, among other folks, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín Guzman Loera (“Guzman Loera”), a/k/a “El Chapo.” In or about 2013, as HERNANDEZ was campaigning to become President, he recognized approximately $1 million in drug-trafficking proceeds from Guzman Loera. HERNANDEZ sent Hernandez Alvarado and an affiliate, armed with machine guns, to accumulate the $1 million bribe from Guzman Loera. In trade, HERNANDEZ promised to continue protecting the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug-trafficking functions in Honduras.
In or about 2013 and 2014, HERNANDEZ partnered with a violent and substantial-scale Honduran cocaine trafficker named Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez (“Fuentes Ramirez”). For the duration of several meetings concerning HERNANDEZ and Fuentes Ramirez, Fuentes Ramirez bribed HERNANDEZ for defense and protection for his drug-trafficking actions. HERNANDEZ educated Fuentes Ramirez, in element, that HERNANDEZ desired Fuentes Ramirez to husband or wife with Hernandez Alvarado, who was managing drug-trafficking activities in Honduras, and that HERNANDEZ was going to “stuff the prescription drugs ideal up the noses of the gringos.”
In addition to Guzman Loera and Fuentes Ramirez, some of the most prolific traffickers in Honduras and Guatemala provided HERNANDEZ with bribes from drug proceeds to help his political vocation in trade for HERNANDEZ’s security and partnership in their drug trafficking. HERNANDEZ used these cocaine-fueled bribes to make certain his continued ascendancy in Honduran politics, such as his election as President in 2013 and 2017. In relationship with equally the 2013 and 2017 elections, HERNANDEZ directed users of this conspiracy to bribe politicians and election officials with drug proceeds to be certain that HERNANDEZ won the presidency.
In 2018, Hernandez Alvarado was billed in the Southern District of New York in connection with his participation in this conspiracy, and he was subsequently convicted right after trial on October 18, 2019. Whilst Hernandez Alvarado’s situation was pending, HERNANDEZ ongoing to coordinate intently with large-scale traffickers, together with Fuentes Ramirez, who ongoing to shell out HERNANDEZ bribes for safety. Further more, in the course of Hernandez Alvarado’s demo, drug ledgers belonging to yet another previous Honduran drug trafficker and co-conspirator, referred to in the Superseding Indictment as “CC-2,” have been introduced into proof. These ledgers contained, amid other items, notations with Hernandez Alvarado’s name and “JOH,” HERNANDEZ’s initials, along with corresponding entries reflecting massive payments to HERNANDEZ and Hernandez Alvarado. Around a single 7 days soon after Hernandez Alvarado was convicted, prisoners armed with machetes and a firearm murdered CC-2 in a Honduran prison to avert CC-2’s opportunity cooperation from, between some others, HERNANDEZ.
On the afternoon of January 27, 2022, HERNANDEZ was billed in the Superseding Indictment and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
On February 15, 2022, HERNANDEZ was arrested and detained by Honduran authorities at the ask for of the United States. The United States thereafter submitted a official extradition request, which the Honduran Magistrate Judge granted. HERNANDEZ appealed the extradition conclusion to the Honduran Supreme Courtroom. On March 28, the Honduran Supreme Court denied his attractiveness. On April 6, the Advertisement Hoc Tribunal of the Constitutional Chamber of the Honduran Supreme Courtroom identified HERNANDEZ’s remaining charm was inadmissible. On April 13, the Federal government of Honduras qualified the completion of the extradition proceedings dependable with the earlier courtroom orders, resulting in HERNANDEZ’s surrender to the United States on April 21.
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HERNANDEZ is charged with a few counts: (1) conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, which carries a required minimum amount sentence of 10 many years in jail and a utmost sentence of daily life in prison (2) working with and carrying machine guns and harmful products during, and possessing device guns and harmful products in furtherance of, the cocaine-importation conspiracy, which carries a obligatory least sentence of 30 yrs in prison and a maximum sentence of lifetime in jail and (3) conspiring to use and carry machine guns and damaging devices all through, and to possess equipment guns and destructive units in furtherance of, the cocaine importation conspiracy, which carries a utmost sentence of daily life in prison.
The prospective necessary minimal and optimum sentences in this circumstance are approved by Congress and supplied below for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be identified by the choose.
Mr. Williams praised the fantastic investigative perform of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, New York Strike Drive, and Tegucigalpa Region Office environment, as effectively as the help of the Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department’s Legal Division in the arrest and extradition of HERNANDEZ.
This prosecution is component of an Arranged Crime Drug Enforcement Endeavor Forces (OCDETF) procedure. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the maximum-stage legal businesses that threaten the United States applying a prosecutor-led, intelligence-pushed, multi-company tactic. Additional data about the OCDETF Method can be uncovered at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
This circumstance is becoming handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Nationwide Stability and Global Narcotics Device. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacob H. Gutwillig, Michael D. Lockard, Jason A. Richman, and Elinor L. Tarlow are in demand of the prosecution.
The expenses in the Superseding Indictment are simply accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until finally established responsible.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the textual content of the Superseding Indictment, and the description of the Superseding Indictment established forth herein, represent only allegations, and every truth described should be dealt with as an allegation.
