New York, United States
The US Attorney General’s Office again linked the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, with the case drug trafficker Geovanny Fonts Ramirez during the final allegation of prosecutor Michael Dennis Lockard, in the open trial against Ramirez, accused of cocaine trafficking and possession of weapons.
“Tony Hernandez (brother of the Honduran president) is, like Juan Orlando Hernández, One of the partners in the drug trafficking of the defendant. He’s the man directing traffic for Orlando, ”Lockard said, addressing jurors during his summary of the two-week sessions since the trial began.
For more than an hour, the prosecution recalled the statements of the main witness, the former leader of the Honduran cartel of Los Cachiros, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, as well as two protected witnesses who testified with false names and who corroborated the information provided by Rivera.
THE BEGINNING IN MIAMI
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, during the first decade of this millennium, the defendant and also the drug trafficker Melvin Sandres, alias “Metro”, sold cocaine in Miami until, fearing to be discovered, they returned to Honduras, on sources RamirezWith the help of the metro, a cousin of the Cachiros leaders, he began working with the cartel to help them transport shipments of drugs from Colombia to the border with Guatemala on their way to Mexico, and later to the United States.
The prosecutor recalled the transportation of three alleged shipments totaling 1,500 kilograms of cocaine.
“But the defendant was not satisfied protecting someone else’s cocaine. He wanted to be the leader, he wanted to be the one to buy and sell the cocaine for himself,” Lockard told the court, who after hearing the latest in the Will have to retire to deliberate.
The prosecution claims that this is the cause that pushed Fuentes Ramirez to buy cocaine directly and sell it and to open a drug lab to treat base cocaine imported from Colombia and transform it into cocaine with the intention of increasing profit. .
He defended the lab with automatic weapons, assault rifles and grenade launchers, a weapon with which he also protected Los Cachiros’ drug shipments when he worked with them, he said.
JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ, “PARTNER” OF THE DEFENDANT
It is a business for which he sought the support, according to the prosecution, of President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his brother Tony, after Los Cachiros gave him the spade.
Lockard claimed that Ramírez bribed Joan Orlando Hernández in exchange for protection, as did Els Cachiros.
“But Joan Orlando Hernandez didn’t just want the defendant’s money. He wanted access to the defendant’s cocaine. The defendant’s lab was a short distance from Honduras’ largest port, Puerto Cortez, and Juan Orlando wanted the defendant’s cocaine to export from here, “the prosecutor said.
Lockard added that Hernandez offered the defendant the contact of his brother Tony.
IN DEFENSE CHARGE AGAINST RIVERA’S TESTIMONY
For his part, the lawyer of sources Ramirez, Abraham Moskowitz, focused his defense on discrediting the testimony of the leader of the Cachiros, Who appeared as a cooperating witness of Government.
“Leonel Rivera is the key and if they don’t believe him, there is no reasonable doubt (to convict the defendant) and there are many reasons not to create Leonel Rivera. He is one of the most important drug traffickers in the world, he said. trafficking more than 100 tons of cocaine to the United States, “Moskowitz said.
The lawyer also recalled that Rivera himself admitted to having killed and ordered the killing of 78 people.
“This man has no morals, no scruples, and probably no soul, and I tell you, you can’t believe him,” Moskowitz concluded. EFE