NEW YORK (AP) — A Honduran drug trafficker testified Thursday that he gave $40,000 to Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández in 2005 for the congressional campaign of his brother, who is now the president of Honduras.
Trafficker Victor Hugo Diaz Morales said that with Tony Hernández’s help he moved more than 150 tons of cocaine through Honduras between 2004 and 2016. Diaz said Hernández asked him for the money, explaining that with his brother in office, he could make government connections and help traffickers.
U.S. prosecutors allege Hernández capitalized on his government connections to move tons of U.S.-bound drugs through the country. President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving his second term, was previously president of the country’s congress.
Prosecutors say Juan Orlando Hernández received at least $1.5 million for his 2013 presidential campaign from drug traffickers. In exchange, the traffickers moved their shipments without government interference, prosecutors say.
The president has vehemently denied the allegations, noting that he helped usher in the agreement that allowed for the extradition of drug traffickers to the U.S. He says that move is why traffickers are seeking their revenge now with false allegations.
Juan Orlando Hernández has been named a co-conspirator in his brother Tony Hernández’s case, but does not face charges.
U.S. prosecutors also showed jurors photos of notebooks seized from a known drug trafficker apparently logging drug shipments and payments that included the name of the president’s brother.
The ledgers were taken after the arrest of Nery Orlando López Sanabria last year in Honduras along with guns, cash, a radio and jewelry, prosecutors said.
The revelations came during the second day of Tony Hernández’s...
