Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been sentenced to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offenses. <\/p>\n
He has previously denied the charges against him and at his sentencing on Wednesday insisted that he is innocent and was \u201cwrongly and unjustly accused.\u201d <\/p>\n
In March, a jury in New York found Hernandez guilty on three drug trafficking charges after a two-week trial in Manhattan federal court. He denied the charges. <\/p>\n
He was extradited from Honduras after the US Department of Justice filed three drug-trafficking and firearms related charges against him in 2022. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors had accused Hern\u00e1ndez, 55, of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. <\/p>\n
In exchange, prosecutors said, Hern\u00e1ndez received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics. <\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez was president of Honduras from 2014 until 2022. During his years in office, he \u201cprotected and enriched the drug traffickers in his inner circle,\u201d the Justice Department said, citing his use of executive power to support extraditions to the US of certain drug traffickers \u201cwho threatened his grip on power\u201d while \u201cpromising drug traffickers who paid him and followed his instructions that they would remain in Honduras.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prosecutors also said that members of the conspiracy in which Hern\u00e1ndez participated relied on the Honduran National Police to protect cocaine shipments as they moved through the country. <\/p>\n
In a statement, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hern\u00e1ndez \u201cabused his position as president of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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