FORMER Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $8 million by a US judge for drug trafficking offences.
He has previously denied the charges against him and at his sentencing on Wednesday insisted he was innocent and had been “wrongfully and unfairly convicted.”
In March, a New York jury found Hernandez guilty of three counts of drug trafficking after a two-week trial in Manhattan federal court. He denied the charges.
He was extradited from Honduras after the US Justice Department filed three charges, related to drug trafficking and firearms, against him in 2022.
Prosecutors accuse Hernández, 55, of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras to the United States.
In return, prosecutors say, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to support his political career in Honduras.
Read also: Police Detain Former Honduran President Over US Extradition Request
Hernández was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022. During his tenure, he “protected and enriched his inner circle of drug traffickers,” the Justice Department said, citing his use of executive power to support the extradition to the U.S. of several drug traffickers “who threatened his power” while “promising drug traffickers who paid and followed his instructions that they would remain in Honduras.”
Prosecutors also said members of the conspiracy Hernández joined relied on the Honduran National Police to protect cocaine shipments as they moved through the country.
In a statement, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernández “abused his position as president of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with near impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States paid the price.” (CNN/Z-3)
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