{"id":168516,"date":"2022-03-17T18:09:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T10:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=168516"},"modified":"2022-03-17T18:09:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T10:09:41","slug":"drug-trafficking-judge-rules-former-honduran-president-may-be-extradited-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=168516","title":{"rendered":"Drug trafficking: Judge rules former Honduran President may be extradited to US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.mercopress.com\/data\/cache\/noticias\/86788\/0x0\/joo.png\"><img src=\"https:\/\/en.mercopress.com\/data\/cache\/noticias\/86788\/760x480\/joo.png\" alt=\"Hern\u00e1ndez left office Jan. 27, after losing the elections to current leftist President Xiomara Castro\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>TEGUCIGALPA, March 17 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) &#8212; A Honduran judge ruled in favor of extraditing former President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez to the United States, where he is wanted for alleged drug trafficking and illegal use of weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cExtradition Judge of First Instance resolves: to grant request for Extradition sent by the Court of the Southern District of New York for the former president of the Republic Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez Alvarado,\u201d the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras announced through its official Twitter account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s ruling may be appealed within the next three days, according to Judiciary Spokesman Melvin Duarte, in which case, it would be up to the Supreme Court to make the final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hern\u00e1ndez, who ruled Honduras between 2014 and 2022, is sought for crimes such as \u201cconspiracy to import a controlled substance\u201d and \u201cpossessing firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former head of state is said to have participated \u201cin the violent drug trafficking conspiracy to receive multi-ton shipments of cocaine sent to Honduras from Colombia and Venezuela, among other places, via air and sea routes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe conspiracy transported more than 500,000 kilograms of cocaine through Honduras to the United States,\u201d according to the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US prosecutors handling the case in New York claim the former president received millions of dollars in bribes and profits from multiple drug trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and other countries. In return, \u201cHern\u00e1ndez shielded drug traffickers from investigation, arrest, and extradition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2013, \u201cHernandez accepted approximately US$ 1,000,000 in drug trafficking proceeds from Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n Loera, alias &#8216;El Chapo.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former president has also been linked to drug trafficking during the trial against his brother, former Congressman \u201cTony\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez, who is already serving a life sentence in New York since March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hern\u00e1ndez is a 53-year-old right-wing lawyer who left office Jan. 27, after being defeated in the elections by current leftist President Xiomara Castro. &#8212; NNN-MERCOPRESS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TEGUCIGALPA, March 17 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) &#8212; A Honduran judge ruled in favor of extraditing former President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez to the United States, where he is wanted for alleged drug trafficking and illegal use of weapons. \u201cExtradition Judge of First Instance resolves: to grant request for Extradition sent by the Court of the Southern District of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":168517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168516"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168518,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168516\/revisions\/168518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/168517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}