As the migrant caravan that originated in Honduras treks north, the brother of that country’s president—a former lawmaker in the Central American nation—has been arrested and indicted in the U.S. on drug and weapons charges. His name is Juan Antonio Hernandez and he is the younger brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who has blamed leftist interests for manipulating migrants to destabilize the country. The younger Hernandez is a former member of the National Congress of Honduras and the feds say he’s a bigtime drug trafficker who has moved tons of cocaine through the region in the last decade with the help of Honduran politicians and law enforcement officials.
A few days ago, Hernandez was arrested in Miami, Florida and this week he was charged in federal court with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machine guns and destructive devices and making false statements to federal agents. The case is being tried in a Manhattan, New York federal court and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, according to a statement issued by the Justice Department. Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor says Hernandez was involved in all stages of trafficking multi tons of U.S.-bound cocaine through Honduras. The president’s younger sibling also arranged machine gun toting security for cocaine shipments, bribed law enforcement officials for sensitive information to protect drug shipments and solicited large bribes from major drug traffickers. -- More....
