U.S. Seeks Life for Honduran President's Brother Convicted of Drug Trafficking

U.S. prosecutors are seeking a life imprisonment sentence for Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez's brother, Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernandez.

According to an Aljazeera report, Tony Hernandez was convicted in October 2019 for running a state-sponsored drug trafficking conspiracy with Honduras' current president.

Tony Hernandez, a former Honduras congressman, allegedly participated in a conspiracy to smuggle cocaine to the U.S. that involved machineguns' use.

"The defendant trafficked cocaine on a monumental scale, corrupted his elected office, contributed to the already deteriorating conditions in Honduras, and repeatedly lied to the Court," the prosecutors said in a report.

President Hernandez, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.

In addition to a life term, the U.S. government also wanted Tony Hernandez to give up the $138.5 million in "blood money" from his drug trafficking and pay an additional $10 million fine.

His lawyers have yet to file a response to the government's sentencing memorandum. Tony Hernandez was arrested in Miami on Nov. 23, 2018.

Tony Hernandez's Case

Aside from the drug conspiracy and weapons charges, Tony Hernandez was also convicted for lying to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

A two-week trial in 2019 highlighted the lucrative drug trade between the U.S. and Honduras. U.S. prosecutors at the time argued that the Central American country's government protected the drug conspiracy trade, The Guardian reported.

A testimony that the convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman gave $1 million in bribes to Tony Hernandez to pass along to his brother surfaced during the trial.

Even though President Hernandez was not charged, he was labeled a co-conspirator. The president earlier tweeted that the prosecution's allegations were 100 percent false.

Emil Bove, the assistant US attorney, said that the drug conspiracy was already more than six years old in 2010, the time when Tony Hernandez and his associates gained control of the government and protected drug traffickers.

"Beginning in 2010, the defendant worked on massive cocaine shipments sent to the United States on a monthly basis," Bove said in the report. Bove added that the president of Honduras also deployed the military to Guatemala's border to protect the defendant's drug turf, and the latter used the national police to murder one of his drug rivals.

Tony Hernandez's sentencing has already been delayed multiple times, according to a US News report. Judge Kevin Castel would be the one who will sentence Tony Hernandez on Tuesday in New York. Castel is also the presiding judge in Geovanny Fuentes' trial, another Honduran accused of drug trafficking.

President Hernandez's name has already been mentioned repeatedly in the trial as U.S. prosecutors continue to argue that drug traffickers spurred the president's political rise.

An alias Jose Sanchez was the Honduran who testified in the trial that he fled Honduras as he felt that his life was in danger after seeing two meetings in which Fuentes paid bribes to now-President Hernandez in 2013.

Sanchez arrived in the U.S. in 2015 with his family. As he overstayed his visa, he decided to approach prosecutors in Chicago to tell them about the two meetings he witnessed back in his country.

Prosecutors in Chicago at the time told him that it was his word "against the president's." He was then asked to go back to Honduras for evidence. However, he said he received a call from a past coworker, warning him that Fuentes is looking for him to kill him.

Sanchez, who is a 45-year-old man that worked as an accountant for 15 years for rice company Graneros Nacionales, said the meetings with President Hernandez were recorded by security cameras inside the firm's offices.

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