Honduran police commander was hand over to the United States to face narcotics charges.
On Tuesday, former Honduran police director Juan Carlos Bonilla was extradited to the United States, where he is accused of overseeing drug trafficking activities on behalf of ex-President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Hernandez, 53, was extradited to the United States this month on drug trafficking accusations, less than three months after stepping down from the presidency after eight years.
An AFP journalist on the scene observed a US Drug Enforcement Agency plane take off from a military facility in Tegucigalpa with a handcuffed Bonilla aboard.
Bonilla, 61, was named in the prosecution of Hernandez’s ex-congressman brother Tony, who was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to life in prison in New York.
In an April 2020 statement, then-federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman stated Bonilla “apparently exploited his positions in Honduran law enforcement to violate the law and play a crucial part in a murderous international drug trafficking scheme.”
He also “oversaw the transshipment of multi-ton cargoes of cocaine intended for the United States, using machine guns and other weaponry to do that, and participated in severe violence, including the death of a rival trafficker, to further the conspiracy” in the name of the Hernandez brothers.
If convicted, Bonilla, also known as “The Tiger,” may spend the rest of his life in prison.
From 2012 to 2013, he was the police chief, just at the start of Hernandez’s term.
He was arrested in March, and his extradition was approved by the Supreme Court a month later.
Bonilla had agreed to be extradited to “shorten the process,” according to Security Minister Ramon Sabillon.
Bonilla said in an open letter a few days ago that he had been targeted “unfairly” by “unknown entities acting outside the law” to accuse him.
He stated that he will fly to America “with his head held high” and a “clean conscience.”
Hernandez has denied any role in drug trafficking and was scheduled to appear in court later Tuesday.
According to US prosecutors, the previous president converted Honduras into a “narco-state” by indulging in drug trafficking with the military, police, and citizens.
According to US prosecutors, some drug traffickers have admitted to paying bribes to Hernandez’s inner circle. By the time he left office, DEA agents were ready to go after him.
His family alleges he is a “victim of drug traffickers’ retribution for extraditing or forcing him to flee to the United States.”
