The son of a former Central American president pleaded guilty for trying to import cocaine into the US

Screen grab/Telemundo

The son of former Honduras President Porfirio Lobo pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, a year after his arrest in Haiti as part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration probe.

Fabio Lobo, 44, faces a mandatory 10-year minimum prison term when he is sentenced on Sept. 15, and could get up to life behind bars following his plea to a single count of conspiring to import cocaine.

At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Lobo admitted to participating in a drug trafficking scheme that a federal prosecutor said also involved Honduran police officers.

"I knew that it was illegal," Lobo said.

Lobo's father was elected president of Honduras in late 2009 after a military coup ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya. Porfirio Lobo left office in January 2014, when Juan Orlando Hernandez assumed the presidency.

At the time of his son's arrest, Porfirio Lobo said he hoped his son was innocent, "but if he is guilty, he should take responsibility for his actions."

In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emil Bove said evidence showed that beginning in late 2013, Lobo began discussing drug trafficking activities with confidential DEA sources posing as drug traffickers.

The goal, he said, was to profit from facilitating drug-running through Honduras. The notoriously violent Central American country has long served as a major transshipment point for U.S.-bound cocaine smuggled out of South America.

As part of the scheme, Lobo introduced confidential sources to a "high-ranking official" who declined to participate in the deal, as well as police officials who could take steps to help them, he said.

Manuel Retureta, Lobo's lawyer, declined outside of court to discuss those allegations, but said his client "made a mistake" by getting close to individuals involved in large-scale drug trafficking.

"He is stepping forward to take responsibility for what he did," he said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)

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