The former director of the Honduran police, prosecuted for having “supervised” drug trafficking operations on behalf of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who appeared this Tuesday in a New York court, was extradited to the States United, noted AFP.
Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla, 61, was escorted by an impressive police motorcade from his prison to a Honduran air force base where he boarded a plane from the Department of Drug Enforcement American (DEA). He is being prosecuted in the United States for having “abused his position in the Honduran police to circumvent the law and play a key role in a vast international drug trafficking conspiracy”.
He would have supervised the transhipment of cargoes bound for the United States
According to the indictments, “on behalf of former Honduran Member of Parliament Tony Hernandez and his brother, President Juan Orlando Hernandez, Mr. Bonilla oversaw the transshipment of multi-ton shipments of cocaine destined for the United States. “. In March 2021, American justice sentenced ex-MP Tony Hernandez to life imprisonment.
In an open letter published a few days ago, Mr. Bonilla denies having been “unjustly mentioned by strangers who acted outside the law” to harm him, and that he relies on justice “head held high” with a “clean conscience”. Arrested on March 9, the extradition of Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla was ratified by the Honduran Supreme Court on April 21, the same day former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was extradited to the United States for drug traffic.
JOH, by the initials of his name, challenged the drug trafficking charges against him on Tuesday in a New York court and pleaded “not guilty”. The former president, who faces life imprisonment, has always claimed that it is a “revenge of the cartels”, “an orchestrated plot”. According to US prosecutors, Mr. Hernandez turned Honduras into a “narco-state” by implicating the army and the police in drug trafficking to the United States.
