A brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was charged Monday in the United States with conspiring to bring tons of cocaine in the country and related weapons offenses.
Federal prosecutors in New York called Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, a “large-scale drug trafficker,” who was so involved in distributing cocaine, some shipments were stamped with his initials.
They allege that between 2004 and 2016, Mr. Hernandez worked with other drug traffickers in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico to import cocaine into the United States.
Mr. Hernandez was arrested Friday in Miami and in a federal court there on Monday. The charges were filed in the Southern District of New York.
The indictment says Mr. Hernandez was involved in processing, receiving and transporting drugs into the United States using planes, ships and on at least one occasion, a submarine. He also arranged for heavily armed security, including the Honduran National Police, to protect the drugs, prosecutors said.
“As alleged, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez was involved in all stages of the trafficking through Honduras of multi-ton loads of cocaine that were destined for the U.S. Hernandez allegedly arranged machine gun-toting security for cocaine shipments, bribed law enforcement officials for sensitive information to protect drug shipments, and solicited large bribes from major drug traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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