Former Honduran president guilty of cocaine conspiracy

March 8 (UPI) -- Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted Friday of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and possessing or conspiring to possess machine guns and other "destructive devices."

The conviction came in New York southern district Federal Court, where prosecutors said the avowed law and order candidate from the right-wing Honduran National Party was allied with the same drug cartel forces he claimed to oppose.

"Juan Orlando Hernandez abused 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," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement, "Juan Orlando Hernandez had every opportunity to be a force for good in his native Honduras. Instead, he chose to abuse his office and country for his own personal gain and partnered with some of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world to transport tons of cocaine to the United States."

Williams added his office will "stop at nothing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for sending poison to this community, no matter their status or political power."

The Justice Department said Hernandez used Honduran National Police and Honduran Army to protect cocaine loads as they transited Honduras.

Hernandez' co-conspirators also "turned to violence and murder to protect and grow their drug trafficking enterprise, attacking and murdering rival traffickers and those who threatened their grip on the Honduran cocaine trade," according to the Justice Department.

Hernandez was at the center of what the DOJ called one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world from at least 2004 up to and including 2022.

Some Hondurans attending his trial derisively laughed at Hernandez when he testified he had no connection to drug trafficking and that witnesses against him were "professional liars."

Prosecutors said Hernandez had taken what they described as cocaine-fueled bribes while using the Honduran military, police and judicial system to protect the cartels.

Hernandez said, "Tell the world I'm innocent. I love you, as the guilty verdicts came in.