TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — In a blow to President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, American prosecutors on Monday announced drug charges against his younger brother, describing him as a “large-scale drug trafficker” who spent a dozen years moving cocaine shipments bound for the United States through Central America.
Juan Antonio Hernández, 40, was deeply involved in all aspects of the drug trade — arranging security and protection for shipments, taking bribes from traffickers, and assuring government contracts for money-laundering front companies — according to Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan.
Mr. Hernández was so established in trafficking, prosecutors said, that he had even had his own cocaine brand: Laboratories in Colombia and Honduras stamped packets with the initials T.H., for Tony Hernández.
He was arrested in Miami on Friday, but American officials did not provide details until Monday. The first confirmation of the arrest came from President Hernández himself on Friday, in a statement from his office that reaffirmed his government’s commitment to justice and declared that no one was above the law.
But the details of the allegations cast an unwanted spotlight on the influence that drug traffickers exert over the Honduran state, and threatens to tarnish the reputation of President Hernández, an ally of the United States who has staked his credibility on the fight against organized crime.
It also underscores the entrenched corruption in Honduran law enforcement agencies at a time when thousands of Hondurans are fleeing the country’s violence and poverty to seek asylum in the United States.
The migrants have been traveling in caravans for protection along a route through Mexico, giving new visibility to the steady exodus of people from Honduras. Thousands have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, at the border with San Diego, to petition for asylum, and thousands more are expected to arrive there in the coming weeks.
The president’s brother was linked to a trafficking organization called Los Cachiros, when its former leader, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, testified as part of a plea deal with American prosecutors that he had paid Mr. Hernández a bribe.
Mr. Rivera has been cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Administration since December 2013. Those who have been convicted by his testimony include Fabio Lobo, the son of a former Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo.
In the indictment released on Monday, prosecutors said the Cachiros had paid Mr. Hernández $50,000 to ensure that Honduran government agencies would make payments owed to front companies they operated to launder drug money.
The indictment also alleged that Mr. Hernández “was involved in processing, receiving, transporting and distributing multi-ton loads of cocaine that arrived in Honduras via planes, go-fast vessels, and on at least one occasion, a submarine.”
As part of his activities, the indictment said, Mr. Hernández paid off law enforcement officials to protect shipments and also demanded bribes from drug traffickers for himself and “on behalf of one or more high-ranking Honduran politicians.”
Source : Nytimes
