Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: PhytoExtractum Buy Bali Kratom Powder   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Invisiblecycline
pan-informationist

Registered: 09/11/13
Posts: 349
Loc: Dissoversum
Ex-President Made Honduras a Safe Haven for Drug Gangs, Prosecutors Say
    #28669885 - 02/21/24 02:49 PM (4 months, 3 days ago)

Ex-President Made Honduras a Safe Haven for Drug Gangs, Prosecutors Say
By Colin Moynihan Feb. 21, 2024 Updated 12:41 p.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/nyregion/ex-president-made-honduras-a-safe-haven-for-drug-gangs-prosecutors-say.html

Quote:


The former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, went on trial Wednesday in Manhattan, accused of years of misrule funded by cocaine proceeds.

Brick after brick of cocaine flowed for years into the United States from countries like Venezuela and Colombia, all of it funneled through the tiny Central American nation of Honduras.

Aircraft flown from clandestine dirt airstrips and smuggler vessels disguised as fishing trawlers found a safe haven there, U.S. officials said. And the ruthless gangs that operated them, the officials said, had a partner and protector in the country’s two-term president, Juan Orlando Hernández.

Opening arguments in Mr. Hernández’s trial on conspiracy to import narcotics began Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He is accused of taking part in a scheme that lasted more than 20 years and brought more than 500 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

Mr. Hernández, who was president for eight years until stepping down in 2022, used the proceeds to finance his campaigns, U.S. officials said, then directed the Honduran police and military to protect smugglers who paid him off. One accused co-conspirator was killed in a Honduran prison to protect Mr. Hernández, according to an indictment.

During opening statements Wednesday, every seat was full and folding chairs lined the walls.

“This is a case about power, about corruption, about massive amounts of cocaine and about the one man who stood in the center of it,” said David Robles, a prosecutor, pointing at Mr. Hernández. The defendant, in a charcoal suit and gold-rimmed glasses, sat back defiantly.

When Mr. Hernández was extradited to New York in 2022, U.S. officials said, he sanctioned violence and reveled in his ability to flood America with cocaine. His brother was said to have told a trafficker that Mr. Hernández was going to “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”

That brother, Tony Hernández, who had served in the Honduran Congress, was convicted in 2019 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and sentenced to life.

The former president, who has also been charged with possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns and destructive devices, has denied wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, Mr. Hernández’s lawyer, Renato Stabile, told jurors that his client was the victim of revenge plots by “depraved people” who dealt drugs, murdered en masse and wanted leniency from the U.S. He added: “These are real psychopaths.”

“Mr. Hernández does not sit down with drug dealers; he stands up to drug dealers,” Mr. Stabile said.

It is not unprecedented for a former head of state to face charges in New York — Mr. Hernández is not even the first Honduran president to do so. Rafael Callejas, who led the nation from 1990 to 1994, pleaded guilty in 2016 in Brooklyn to taking bribes while leading the Honduran soccer federation.

Alfonso Portillo, a former president of Guatemala, pleaded guilty in 2014 in Manhattan to accepting bribes in exchange for diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.

The closest parallel to Mr. Hernández is Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former leader of Panama. He was found guilty in 1992 in Miami federal court of allowing the Medellín drug cartel to ship enormous amounts of cocaine through his country to the United States in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.

The trial may provide some resolution for Honduras, a poverty-stricken country of some 10 million that has struggled for decades with corruption and violence, and where Mr. Hernández has become deeply unpopular.

His government failed to rein in crime or build a healthy economy and hundreds of thousands of desperate Hondurans left, with many aiming to enter the United States. Mr. Hernández’s successor, Xiomara Castro, accused him of turning the country into a “narco-dictatorship.”

In both of his presidential campaigns, prosecutors said, Mr. Hernández used drug money to bribe election officials and manipulate the vote. Widespread distrust of the results of the second election, in 2017, led to protests that blocked roads and bridges. Prosecutors said that Mr. Hernández gave money to a political party colleague who paid gang members to commit violence, and that demonstrators died during confrontations with security forces that followed.

Fireworks exploded around the capital of Tegucigalpa in 2022 when the Honduran Supreme Court approved Mr. Hernández’s extradition, prompting celebrations that included chants of “Juancho is going to New York,” using the ex-president’s nickname.

The indictments describe a sprawling conspiracy and breathtaking corruption, detailing how elected officials solicited and took bribes, formed alliances with traffickers and created front companies to launder money.

Prosecutors have said that they plan to bring cooperating witnesses and some co-conspirators to the stand. One was described as a man who provided security for a Honduran trafficking group known as “Los Cachiros.”

Another is Alex Ardon, a former trafficker who was mayor of the municipality of El Paraíso and who prosecutors said would testify that the Hernández brothers trusted a high-ranking member of the Honduran National Police with special assignments, including murder.

One of the most striking exhibits may be ledgers recovered by the Honduran military police, along with firearms, grenades and cash, from a car in which a trafficker was a passenger. Those ledgers, prosecutors said, included Juan Orlando Hernández’s initials, along with details of large-scale cocaine transactions.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.




--------------------
“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wildflower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

— Auguries of Innocence, William Blake

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineYokal
Stranger

Registered: 09/17/20
Posts: 611
Last seen: 8 days, 10 hours
Re: Ex-President Made Honduras a Safe Haven for Drug Gangs, Prosecutors Say [Re: cycline]
    #28672268 - 02/23/24 04:31 AM (4 months, 1 day ago)

Who's to blame them for taking part in the world economy?

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleNifflerz
Male User Gallery

Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 52,166
Loc: NASTYVILLE, USA
Re: Ex-President Made Honduras a Safe Haven for Drug Gangs, Prosecutors Say [Re: Yokal]
    #28672984 - 02/23/24 04:08 PM (4 months, 1 day ago)

More on this:

El Chapo allegedly gave him a briefcase with a million bucks in it. For his campaign. And in return, El Chapo would get secured smuggling routes through Honduras.

https://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-gave-1-million-campaign-honduras-president-hernandez-2024-2

Quote:



Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán personally handed a briefcase filled with $1 million to the brother of Juan Orlando Hernández, the one-time Honduran president, in hopes that his election would secure a drug trafficking route through Honduras, a former supplier to El Chapo testified Thursday.

Amilcar Alexander Ardon Soriano, the former mayor of the Honduran town of El Paraíso, who previously pleaded guilty to a laundry list of violent drug offenses — including drug trafficking, murder, and torture — testified in the Manhattan federal trial of Hernández.

Prosecutors accuse the ex-Honduras president, who was first elected in 2013, of working for years with "violent" drug traffickers to harm the United States.

In court documents, prosecutors wrote that Hernández told his coconspirators he wanted to "stuff the drugs up the noses of the gringos."

The trial, which began with opening statements Wednesday, sheds light on how deep the corruption of the drug cartel runs in Honduras — and how that corruption allows cocaine to end up on the streets of cities and towns in America.

Ardon testified Thursday that he gave millions in drug money to Hernández and the National Party over the years and assisted with election fraud and bribing voters.

Ardon described to the jury on Thursday a 2013 meeting he attended with El Chapo in Espíritu, Copán, at the property of Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle and his younger brother Luis Alfonso — two of the most notorious cocaine traffickers in the world.

Ardon testified that an associate of El Chapo had told him to bring Hernández's brother, Tony, to the meeting. At the meeting, El Chapo told Tony Hernández he was looking to open new trafficking routes through Honduras.

Tony Hernández said that if his brother won the presidential election, "he could help," Ardon testified.

El Chapo then asked if, under his brother's administration, the Valle brothers or Ardon himself would be extradited for prosecution.

"Tony Hernández said that if Juan Orlando won, that we would not be extradited," Ardon told the jury.

At that point, El Chapo offered $1 million to Hernández's campaign, Ardon testified.

"Tony Hernández said he had to speak with his brother to see if he should accept the money," Ardon said, adding later, "Tony Hernández told me that he'd spoken to Juan Orlando Hernández and that they needed the money for the campaign."

At a different meeting that year, Ardon and Tony Hernández met with El Chapo again, and El Chapo personally handed the briefcase with $1 million to Hernández, the convicted drug trafficker testified.

Hernández barely won the 2013 election, with 36.89% of the votes.

The next year, when the Valle brothers were extradited to the United States to face prosecution on drug trafficking charges, El Chapo and his associates were worried, Ardon testified.

The drug lord wanted to know if Ardon and others were safe.

At some point in 2014 or 2015, both Juan Orlando and Tony Hernández met with El Chapo to discuss the extradition, Ardon testified.

"Juan Orlando Hernández told me that he had had them extradited because they had tried to have him killed," Ardon told the jury.

The president then got angry.

"Juan Orlando Hernández said that he had no obligation to anyone and that if they wanted the money back, he could return it," Ardon testified, adding that the president then stormed out.

Ardon's testimony for the prosecution concluded just after the lunch break, and he spent the rest of the day under cross-examination by defense attorney Raymond Colon, who began by questioning Ardon's motive for testifying.

"I'm just trying to tell the truth and get a new lease on life as a better person," the convicted drug trafficker said.

"So you're a better person now?" Colon fired back.

"The time I've spent in jail has made me a better person," said Ardon, who has been in custody since surrendering to US law enforcement in 2019.

Rather than focusing on the truth of the allegations Ardon made in his earlier testimony, Colon spent the afternoon almost exclusively on Ardon's violent past, including his direct involvement over the years in dozens of murders.

"I'm going to list some of the names of the 56 you've killed or had killed, and I want you to tell me if it was personal, revenge, or related to drug trafficking," Colon said, as he launched into questions about nearly two dozen murders spanning two decades.

But Colon's point soon got badly muddled by his meandering and poorly worded questions that frequently misstated facts, dates, and names, raising numerous objections from both the prosecution and Judge Kevin Castel.

Ardon grew testy at times as he gave answers to questions about events already covered at length. And on the beach, Castel began to lose patience, even snapping at Colon.

"That was only three questions ago, please!" Castel said after reading back a portion of the transcript to help Colon return to his place in the questioning.

As the afternoon drew to a close, Colon asked a final question about one of Ardon's murders, seemingly unaware that Ardon had walked him through that incident hours earlier at the very start of cross-examination.

At the defense table, Hernández could be seen at one point pinching the bridge of his nose and scrunching his eyes shut.

The trial is scheduled to resume Friday.







Wild shit. It's just like the show Narcos.


--------------------
I'M NASTY AF. YEAH, I'M A NASTY MOTHERFUCKER AND I'M FK'N PROUD OF IT. SO FUCK YOU, FUCK UR MOMMA, AND FUCK EVERYBODY ELSE WHO GOTS A PROBLEM WITH DA NIFFLERZ. SUCK MY LIL DICK YOU FAGZ

:jaded:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: PhytoExtractum Buy Bali Kratom Powder   Kraken Kratom Red Vein Kratom


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* 38 Arrested as Drug Ring Is Broken Up motamanM 2,729 2 04/14/03 10:04 AM
by Mojo_Risin
* College president and family arrested on pot charges motamanM 4,169 6 03/28/03 10:16 AM
by Learyfan
* Teen accused of drug cultivation Lana 2,411 6 03/04/04 09:46 AM
by mjshroomer
* The Drug War Goes Up in Smoke (lengthy but worthwhile read) Demiurge 5,417 2 08/14/03 06:17 AM
by TheHobbit
* Americans turn to Canada for 'illegal' drugs motamanM 2,142 2 12/26/03 11:55 PM
by DailyPot
* Educator admits he planted drugs motamanM 1,798 2 02/23/04 05:36 PM
by KingOftheThing
* Honduras becomes western hemisphere cocaine hub veggieM 599 0 10/31/11 12:07 PM
by veggie
* Mather Student Arrested on Drug Charges AnnoA 2,854 1 11/26/04 10:39 AM
by Anno

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
610 topic views. 0 members, 7 guests and 8 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.015 seconds spending 0.004 seconds on 12 queries.