MANHATTAN (CN) — New York federal prosecutors kicked off the narco-bribery trial of the former president of Honduras on Wednesday morning, accusing Juan Orlando Hernández in their opening statement of involvement in an international drug trafficking conspiracy that involved “enormous amounts of cocaine, rampant corruption, and violence.”
“This is a case about power,” assistant U.S. Attorney David Robles told jurors on Wednesday morning. “About corruption, about massive amounts of cocaine, and about the one man who stood at the center of all of it — the former president of Honduras.”
He pointed toward the defense table. “That man,” he said. “Juan Orlando Hernández.”
The 55-year-old former president of Honduras faces up to three terms of life in prison if convicted on a trio of drug and weapons counts: conspiring to manufacture and import cocaine into the United States; using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices during and in furtherance of the cocaine importation conspiracy; and conspiring to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices during and in furtherance of the cocaine importation conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors accused Hernández in an April 2022 indictment of taking bribes from Colombian and Venezuelan drug traffickers who wanted shuttle tons of cocaine from South America to sell in the United States.
“For years he worked hand-in-hand with some of the largest and most violent drug traffickers in Honduras to send tons of cocaine here,” Robles told jurors during the prosecution’s brief opening argument. “He abused the power of his country — the military, the police, the justice system — to protect and support those traffickers.”
He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in April 2022, and extradited to the United States.
Three months prior to his arrest, Hernández had been president of the Central American nation, a position he had held since 2014.
In exchange for aiding the South American drug traffickers’ cocaine smuggling through Honduras, Hernández’s political campaigns were bankrolled with millions of dollars of drug money, Robles said.
Prosecutors say the Honduran president gave the traffickers protection for cocaine shipments in caravans of trucks guarded by police officers armed with machine guns.
He also shielded traffickers from extradition to the United States to face criminal charges, prosecutors claim.
They accuse Hernández of making deals with criminal organizations to his north, namely the powerful Sinaloa cartel in Mexico once run by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, and the notoriously violent Central American gang MS-13.
Hernández’s attorney Renato Stabile began the defense’s opening statement with a quote from William Shakepeare’s “The Tempest”, bellowing: “Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
He added: “I promise you, in this case, all the devils will be here. You will hear from government witnesses that killed so many people. If you look around this courtroom, the number of people they have killed is probably more than everyone sitting here right now.”
Reciting the hundreds of tons of cocaine trafficked by prosecution’s cooperating witnesses in the case — and the half dozen life sentences they've received — Stabile told jurors the key evidence in the government’s case will be testimony from vengeful convicted murderers and drug traffickers who are only testifying to reduce their own prison sentences.
“These are depraved people, these are psychopaths,” he said. “These are not people worthy of your trust and belief.”
Stabile called the evidence “smoke and mirrors,” and told jurors to expect “just enough talk to make things seems maybe plausible,” but not sufficient to overcome the prosecution’s burden to prove his client's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Previewing evidence that purports to show bundles of cocaine stamped with the initials “T.H.” that prosecutors will claim stood for Juan Orlando’s younger brother Tony Hernández, Stabile told jurors the stamp happened to also be the logo for the Tommy Hilfiger clothing brand.
Invoking a reference to a 90s R&B group, Stabile said the prosecution was going to bring up Juan Orlando’s brother so much in their direct case, that "it's going to be like the Tony! Toni! Toné! trial.”
The trial is being presided over by U.S District Judge Kevin Castel. The George W. Bush appointee also oversaw the case against Hernández’s brother, who was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit $138 million.
Castel told jurors he anticipates the trial will take two to three weeks.
Dozens of Honduran demonstrators have shown up for nearly every public proceeding of the trial, demanding justice for Honduran victims of the violence of the narco-trafficking state they say Juan Orlando Hernández facilitated and benefited from.
Some Honduran protesters outside of Manhattan criminal court during the frigid February day held signs reading in Spanish “Narco gobierno obliga al pueblo a emigrar” — the narco government forces people to flee.
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