Tegucigalpa. A Tegucigalpa judge granted this Wednesday the extradition to the United States of former president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), who is wanted to be prosecuted for drug trafficking and illegal use of weapons.
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In 2013 “Hernández accepted approximately US$1 million in drug proceeds from Joaquín Guzmán Loera.” Photo Afp
“First Instance Extradition Judge resolves: grant extradition request submitted by the Court of the Southern District of New York for former President of the Republic Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado,” tweeted the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice.
The decision can still be appealed within the next three days, Judiciary spokesman Melvin Duarte said. In that case, it will be the plenary of magistrates of the Supreme Court that has the final voice.
In the extradition request, the United States accused Hernández of crimes such as “conspiracy (…) to import controlled substance” and “possessing firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics.”
According to the request, between 2004 and 2022 “Hernández participated in the violent drug trafficking conspiracy to receive shipments of multiple tons of cocaine sent to Honduras from Colombia and Venezuela, among other places, by air and sea routes.”
“The conspiracy transported more than approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras destined for the United States,” it adds.
According to US prosecutors handling the case in New York, the former president received millions of dollars in bribes and profits from multiple drug trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere.
“In exchange for this, Hernández protected drug traffickers from investigation, arrest and extradition,” he explains.
In 2013 “Hernández accepted approximately one million US dollars in profits from the drug trafficking of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo”, the document adds.
New York prosecutors linked the former president to drug trafficking during the trial once morest his brother, former deputy “Tony” Hernández, who was sentenced in March 2021 to life in prison for that crime.
JOH, as he is known by the initials of his name, is a 53-year-old right-wing lawyer, who left office on January 27 to the leftist Xiomara Castro.
He was president for eight years and before that he led Parliament, in positions where he showed loyalty to the United States in the fight once morest drug trafficking.
