newsinsightplus.com 2014Guatemalan2015Top March 8, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaEx-president of Honduras found guilty of drug crimesPublished1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ReutersImage caption, A court sketch of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez during his US trialBy Nadine YousifBBC NewsJuan Orlando Hernández, the ex-president of Honduras, has been found guilty of drug trafficking charges in a federal US court. Hernández was convicted on Friday of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and possessing “destructive devices” including machine guns.Prosecutors said the ex-president ran Honduras like a “narco-state”, protecting and accepting bribes from drug traffickers. Hernández now faces life in prison. The 55-year-old former president had denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in the case. He was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court after about two days of deliberations. Hernández was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, serving for two consecutive terms. He initially ran as a law-and-order candidate who promised to address the issue of drug-related crime in the country.Instead, prosecutors accused him of partnering with “some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire based on the illegal trafficking of tonnes of cocaine to the United States”.Three months after leaving office, he was extradited to New York and arrested in April 2022 to face federal charges in the US. Hernández was once seen as a strong US ally. During his leadership of Honduras, the country received more than $50m (£39m) in anti-narcotics assistance from the US, as well as additional millions of dollars in security and military aid.In 2019, then-President Donald Trump thanked Hernández for “working with the United States very closely”.Hernández in turn thanked Mr Trump and the American people “for the support they have given us in the firm fight against drug trafficking”.Has Honduras become a ‘narco-state’?Prosecutors later uncovered that Hernández was linked with drug traffickers as far back as 2004, long before he became president, and that he had facilitated the smuggling of around 500 tonnes of cocaine to the US.They said drug traffickers paid him millions of dollars in bribes to allow cocaine to be smuggled from Colombia and Venezuela through Honduras on to the US.In one allegation, prosecutors said that Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán had given Tony Hernández – the ex-president’s younger brother – $1m (£778,450) as a bribe for Juan Orlando Hernández.During his trial, several convicted drug traffickers testified that they had bribed Hernández.Prosecutors also alleged that he had used the drug money to then bribe officials to manipulate Honduras’ 2013 and 2017 presidential elections in his favour. In his denial of the allegations, Hernández claimed that he became a “victim of a vendetta and a conspiracy by organised crime and political enemies”. “I had a policy against all those people because I could not stand them,” Hernández said of drug traffickers when testifying at his own trial. “They did a lot of damage in the country.”His lawyers argued that those who testified against him were doing so for their own gain. Hernández has been held at a Brooklyn jail since his extradition. He will be sentenced at a later date. Hernández is not the first ex-Latin American head of state to be convicted of a drug-related crime in the US. Panama’s Manuel Noriega was convicted on drug trafficking charges in a Miami court in 1992, and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo was convicted on money laundering charges in a New York court in 2014. Related TopicsJuan Orlando HernandezHondurasDrugs tradeUnited StatesMore on this storyHonduran ex-leader accused of leading narco-statePublished21 FebruaryFormer Guatemala president sentencedPublished22 May 2014Guatemalan ex-president freed in USPublished26 February 2015Top StoriesArmy’s top IRA spy ‘cost more lives than he saved’Published3 hours agoChris Kaba murder charge police officer named for first timePublished9 hours agoWest Bank violence: ‘My child’s destiny was to get killed’Published3 hours agoFeaturesWhy does International Women’s Day matter?Weekly quiz: Which billionaire hired Rihanna to celebrate a wedding?Singapore sting: How spies listened in on German generalMH370: The families haunted by one of aviation’s greatest mysteriesPride, pilgrims and parades: Africa’s top shotsWhy did the IRA not kill Stakeknife?’I’m really shy’ – The return of Gossip’s Beth DittoHow are the child benefit rules changing?The Iranian female DJs shaking the dance floorElsewhere on the BBCThe ultimate bromanceWatch the masters of satire Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with a look back through the archivesAttributioniPlayerDid one man from Iraq make Norway rich?Meet the man behind Norway’s rise to oil richesAttributionSoundsCan new evidence solve aviation’s greatest mystery?Ten years after the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared, new technology may explain whyAttributioniPlayerHow Trump’s golf dream turned into a nightmare…His controversial golf development in Aberdeenshire was greenlit with awful consequencesAttributionSoundsMost Read1Fertility clinic licence suspended over concerns2Boy, 11, found driving BMW towing caravan on M13TV star shaken after Jaguar brakes fail during drive4Keegan: ‘I’d have probably punched Ofsted staff’5’Bearman already marked out as potentially a special one’AttributionSport6US says UFO sightings likely secret military tests7Five killed in Gaza aid drop parachute failure – reports8Army’s top IRA spy ‘cost more lives than he saved’9Police investigate ‘care of dead’ at funeral homes10Police officer accused of Chris Kaba murder named [ad_1] A New York jury found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of conspiring to import cocaine to the US. 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newsinsightplus.com 2014Guatemalan2015Top March 8, 2024 0 Comments BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaEx-president of Honduras found guilty of drug crimesPublished1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ReutersImage caption, A court sketch of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez during his US trialBy Nadine YousifBBC NewsJuan Orlando Hernández, the ex-president of Honduras, has been found guilty of drug trafficking charges in a federal US court. Hernández was convicted on Friday of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and possessing “destructive devices” including machine guns.Prosecutors said the ex-president ran Honduras like a “narco-state”, protecting and accepting bribes from drug traffickers. Hernández now faces life in prison. The 55-year-old former president had denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in the case. He was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court after about two days of deliberations. Hernández was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, serving for two consecutive terms. He initially ran as a law-and-order candidate who promised to address the issue of drug-related crime in the country.Instead, prosecutors accused him of partnering with “some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire based on the illegal trafficking of tonnes of cocaine to the United States”.Three months after leaving office, he was extradited to New York and arrested in April 2022 to face federal charges in the US. Hernández was once seen as a strong US ally. During his leadership of Honduras, the country received more than $50m (£39m) in anti-narcotics assistance from the US, as well as additional millions of dollars in security and military aid.In 2019, then-President Donald Trump thanked Hernández for “working with the United States very closely”.Hernández in turn thanked Mr Trump and the American people “for the support they have given us in the firm fight against drug trafficking”.Has Honduras become a ‘narco-state’?Prosecutors later uncovered that Hernández was linked with drug traffickers as far back as 2004, long before he became president, and that he had facilitated the smuggling of around 500 tonnes of cocaine to the US.They said drug traffickers paid him millions of dollars in bribes to allow cocaine to be smuggled from Colombia and Venezuela through Honduras on to the US.In one allegation, prosecutors said that Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán had given Tony Hernández – the ex-president’s younger brother – $1m (£778,450) as a bribe for Juan Orlando Hernández.During his trial, several convicted drug traffickers testified that they had bribed Hernández.Prosecutors also alleged that he had used the drug money to then bribe officials to manipulate Honduras’ 2013 and 2017 presidential elections in his favour. In his denial of the allegations, Hernández claimed that he became a “victim of a vendetta and a conspiracy by organised crime and political enemies”. “I had a policy against all those people because I could not stand them,” Hernández said of drug traffickers when testifying at his own trial. “They did a lot of damage in the country.”His lawyers argued that those who testified against him were doing so for their own gain. Hernández has been held at a Brooklyn jail since his extradition. He will be sentenced at a later date. Hernández is not the first ex-Latin American head of state to be convicted of a drug-related crime in the US. Panama’s Manuel Noriega was convicted on drug trafficking charges in a Miami court in 1992, and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo was convicted on money laundering charges in a New York court in 2014. Related TopicsJuan Orlando HernandezHondurasDrugs tradeUnited StatesMore on this storyHonduran ex-leader accused of leading narco-statePublished21 FebruaryFormer Guatemala president sentencedPublished22 May 2014Guatemalan ex-president freed in USPublished26 February 2015Top StoriesArmy’s top IRA spy ‘cost more lives than he saved’Published3 hours agoChris Kaba murder charge police officer named for first timePublished9 hours agoWest Bank violence: ‘My child’s destiny was to get killed’Published3 hours agoFeaturesWhy does International Women’s Day matter?Weekly quiz: Which billionaire hired Rihanna to celebrate a wedding?Singapore sting: How spies listened in on German generalMH370: The families haunted by one of aviation’s greatest mysteriesPride, pilgrims and parades: Africa’s top shotsWhy did the IRA not kill Stakeknife?’I’m really shy’ – The return of Gossip’s Beth DittoHow are the child benefit rules changing?The Iranian female DJs shaking the dance floorElsewhere on the BBCThe ultimate bromanceWatch the masters of satire Peter Cook and Dudley Moore with a look back through the archivesAttributioniPlayerDid one man from Iraq make Norway rich?Meet the man behind Norway’s rise to oil richesAttributionSoundsCan new evidence solve aviation’s greatest mystery?Ten years after the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared, new technology may explain whyAttributioniPlayerHow Trump’s golf dream turned into a nightmare…His controversial golf development in Aberdeenshire was greenlit with awful consequencesAttributionSoundsMost Read1Fertility clinic licence suspended over concerns2Boy, 11, found driving BMW towing caravan on M13TV star shaken after Jaguar brakes fail during drive4Keegan: ‘I’d have probably punched Ofsted staff’5’Bearman already marked out as potentially a special one’AttributionSport6US says UFO sightings likely secret military tests7Five killed in Gaza aid drop parachute failure – reports8Army’s top IRA spy ‘cost more lives than he saved’9Police investigate ‘care of dead’ at funeral homes10Police officer accused of Chris Kaba murder named [ad_1] A New York jury found Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of conspiring to import cocaine to the US. Continue reading