The brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández gets life in prison in the United States, Tony Hernandez was found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine into American soil.
Prosecutors say Hernandez is a “central figure” in the drug trafficking world. The US also says President Juan Orlando Hernandez is a co-conspirator, but he denies all trafficking allegations and has not been formally charged.
A court in the United States has sentenced the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to life in prison for drug trafficking.
Tony Hernández or Tony Montana?
Former Congressman Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández was found guilty in October 2019 of smuggling tonnes of cocaine into the US.
Prosecutors said he had bribed law enforcement officials and was also complicit in at least two murders.
President Juan Orlando Hernández called his brother’s sentence “outrageous”.
Lawyers for Tony Hernández said they would appeal against the sentence.
The 42-year-old served as a member of the Honduras Congress for the National Party from 2014 to 2018.
He was arrested in November 2018 in Miami on charges that he had used his connections with the government to smuggle cocaine through Honduras into the US.
This situation is very damaging indeed for the president of Honduras. While anti-government protests and opposition politicians have accused him of running a “narco-state” for years, the life sentence for his brother has drawn international attention to Honduras.