A prosecutor in New York said on Friday that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández wanted “access to cocaine” from an alleged drug trafficker and that he received bribes from him not only when he ran for president, but also in 2019.
Prosecutor Michael Lockard said during the trial of Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, the alleged drug trafficker, that he met Hernández twice in 2019 and “paid him bribes at both meetings.”
Lockard added that Fuentes Ramírez told former Los Cachiros cartel leader Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga about those alleged encounters in prison last year. Rivera Maradiaga has been working with the United States for years and has testified on multiple drug trafficking operations, in addition to offering dozens of names of those allegedly involved in those operations.
The prosecution also said that at the request of Hernández, Fuentes Ramírez met with senior military officials to discuss a money laundering business.
Lockard, who spoke for more than an hour in his closing arguments during the trial, also said the president received bribes from Fuentes Ramírez in 2013 and that the then-presidential candidate was interested in the Fuentes Ramírez drug lab.
“Juan Orlando Hernández not only wanted the defendant’s money, he also wanted access to the defendant’s cocaine,” Lockard told jurors. “The suspect’s drug lab was near Honduras’ largest port city, Puerto Cortés, and Juan Orlando (Hernández) wanted the suspect’s cocaine so he could export it through that port,” the prosecution said.
“Access to the defendant’s lab meant millions of dollars,” he added. “And the protection of the accused by Juan Orlando Hernández was invaluable to the accused.”
On Monday, Rivera Maradiaga testified at trial and said Fuentes Ramírez had told him in prison that he had photos and videos showing President Hernández receiving shipments of cocaine from Colombia at San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa airports.
New York’s Southern District prosecutors’ allegations against the president have been repeated since 2019. Hernández has repeatedly denied the charges, saying they are lies by drug traffickers seeking to reduce their sentences in the United States. Hernández, has been declared a “co-conspirator” by prosecutors, but is not being charged in the United States.
An accountant who testified at trial under the pseudonym José Sánchez this week said he witnessed two meetings in 2013 where Hernández, when he ran for president, accepted two bribes from Fuentes Ramírez totaling $ 25,000. On Friday, Lockard said that at one of those meetings, Hernández and Fuentes Ramírez had agreed to continue the drug lab.
In those alleged meetings, Hernández is said to have said things like “he would put the drug in the gringos under their noses and they don’t even realize it,” Sánchez testified.
Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer for Fuentes Ramírez, responded Friday that these alleged bribes and rallies made no sense, as a candidate for president would never risk speaking that way in front of a stranger like Sánchez. The alleged bribes were also incredibly low, the lawyer added.
For $ 25,000 Geovanny would own Juan Orlando Hernández. For $ 25,000? Are you buying that the president of Honduras? Do you think that makes sense? Asked the lawyer.
Moskowitz also said Hernández was one of the main promoters of changes to extradition laws in Honduras that could allow drug traffickers to enter the United States. He also stressed that drug trafficking through Honduras has been reduced by more than 80% under his chairmanship.
“Oh, what a corrupt and narco president,” he said sarcastically. “That alone cuts the legs of government theory about Geovanny and the president.”
Sánchez stated that he obtained the footage that security cameras made of the alleged encounters between Hernández and Fuentes Ramírez. These took place in the offices of the Graneros Nacionales company, where Sánchez was an accountant. However, the videos were not shown during the process. Moskowitz said Friday that shows Sánchez is lying.
Prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig responded to that statement as soon as possible: “Don’t you think if we had that video it would be the first thing you’d see on your screen?” He asked the jurors.
He also spoke of the fear Sánchez reportedly felt after seeing the alleged rallies. That’s why he fled from Honduras to the United States, he said.
‘I knew too much. I had seen the defendant and the president talk about flooding the United States with cocaine, ”said the prosecutor.