During the eight years that Juan Orlando Hernández was president of Honduras, the tiny country was a conduit for hundreds of tons of cocaine that flowed north into the United States.
Mr. Hernández’s political fortunes were tied to the gangs that transported those drugs, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
The traffickers fueled his rise, subsidizing Mr. Hernández’s campaigns in return for promises of protection, even as the two-term president presented himself as a U.S. ally in the war against drugs, prosecutors said.
Now Mr. Hernández will spend 45 years in prison.
Judge P. Kevin Castel called Mr. Hernández “a two-faced politician hungry for power” who had masqueraded as an antidrug crusader while partnering with traffickers.
Persons:
Juan Orlando Hernández, Hernández’s, Hernández, Judge P, Kevin Castel, Hernández “, ”
Organizations:
Court
Locations:
Honduras, United States, Manhattan, U.S