A Honduran judge ordered this Tuesday the capture of former president (2014-2022) Juan Orlando Hernández to comply with an extradition request from the United States that accuses him of drug trafficking, according to the spokesman for the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Melvin Duarte.
The judge in his faculties had “to decide whether to issue the arrest warrant and has already been issued“, Said the spokesman at a press conference, while the former president’s home was still surrounded by some 600 police officers since Monday night when the request was reported.
Read more: Honduras appoints a judge to decide whether to extradite former President Hernández to the USA
Hernández participated in a violent drug trafficking conspiracy, according to USA
The US Embassy. in Tegucigalpa affirmed this Tuesday that former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández “participated in a violent drug trafficking conspiracy to receive multi-ton shipments of cocaine sent to Honduras from Colombia and Venezuela, among other places”.
The drug was moved “by air and sea routes, and to transport the drugs to the west of Honduras, to the border with Guatemala, and finally to the United States,” the diplomatic mission indicated in an extensive note addressed to the Honduran Foreign Ministry in Tegucigalpa, in which he confirmed the request for Hernández’s capture for extradition purposes made by the US on Monday.
“In total, since about 2004, the conspiracy transported more than approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras to the United States,” the US embassy stressed.
In the document, the embassy indicated three charges pending against Hernández, who on January 27 concluded an eight-year term in power in the Central American country that was punctuated by multiple complaints about alleged crimes associated with drug trafficking and corruptionwhich he always denied.
The first count is for “conspiracy to import a controlled substance into the United States,” with the “knowledge that said substance would be unlawfully imported into the United States” into waters “within 12 miles of the United States coast.” “.
Additionally, he is charged with “manufacturing, distributing, and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance aboard an aircraft registered in the United States.”
The second charge is for “using or carrying firearms, or aiding and abetting the use, possession and possession” of “machine guns and destructive devices.”
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Source-www.debate.com.mx