Former Honduran President Found Guilty of Conspiring to Import Cocaine Into US

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was found guilty March 8 of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and of gun-related offenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced.

From 2004 to 2022, Hernandez helped lead "one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world," by facilitating the importation of tons of cocaine into the U.S. and receiving millions of dollars in exchange, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He "selectively upheld extraditions by using his executive power to support extraditions to the United States" of certain traffickers who threatened his position, while keeping traffickers that supported him in Honduras.

Hernandez also had members of the Honduran national police and Honduran army protect the cocaine shipments as they went through Honduras, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Many other members of the conspiracy have already been convicted and sentenced, including Hernandez's brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado.

In addition to being found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine, which carries a 10-year minimum prison sentence, the former two-term Honduran president also was found guilty of using and carrying machine guns during the importation conspiracy, which has a mandatory 30-year prison sentence, and "conspiring to use and carry machineguns and destructive devices during, and possessing machineguns in furtherance of, the cocaine-importation conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison."