Ex-Honduran President Who Boasted He'd 'Stuff Drugs Up Noses Of The Gringos' Convicted In NY Fed Court, Faces Life

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty in a New York federal courtroom Friday after the jury rendered its verdict after two weeks of argument. He was convicted on charges related to weapons possession and conspiracy to traffic over 500 tons of cocaine through his country into the U.S. He faces life in prison.

U.S. prosecutors said Hernández boasted that he would "stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos."

In a news release after the conviction, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams' office praised the decision, saying it sent a message to corrupt politicians who would consider a similar path. "Juan Orlando Hernández 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."

Attorney General Merrick Garland added that Hernández had turned Honduras into a "narco-state."

"As today's conviction demonstrates, the Justice Department is disrupting the entire ecosystem of drug trafficking networks that harm the American people, no matter how far or how high we must go," Garland said in a statement.

El Chapo Connection

U.S. prosecutors accused Hernández of partnering "with some of the largest cocaine traffickers in the world" and using his public office to facilitate and protect drug shipments to the U.S. They painted a picture of the deep-seated corruption plaguing Honduran politics as they accused the 55-year-old former president of helping drug lords and cartels in exchange for bribes to further his political career.

In one instance, when Hernández campaigned for his first term as president in 2013, prosecutors said he accepted approximately $1 million from Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the notorious kingpin of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which, according to the DEA is producing and regularly shipping thousands of pounds of deadly fentanyl into the U.S.

In 2019, El Chapo was convicted by a federal court in Brooklyn and sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. Fentanyl shipments continue to flood the U.S. thanks to El Chapo's sons, who now run the Sinaloa cartel.

Hernández denied the charges against him as he attempted to present himself as a tough-on-crime politician who helped the U.S. alleviate its immigration crisis along the nearly 2000-mile southern border with Mexico. Hernández and his defense team framed damaging testimony against him as lies by other drug traffickers facing similar charges to get lighter sentencing in their cases.

"They all have motivation to lie, and they are professional liars," Hernández said of the prosecution witnesses. The NY Times noted that a group of spectators in court "laughed derisively" at Hernández's remarks that he had no connection to drug dealing.

Al Jazeera reported that Honduran residents in the U.S. also gathered outside the courthouse to demonstrate. "The people suffered so much in Honduras," Cecilio Alfaro said. "There's going to be justice, divine justice."

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Photo of Juan Orlando Hernández arrest in Honduras by Shutterstock