New York, United States
The U.S. Attorney’s Office again linked Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández to drug dealer Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez during the closing statement of the prosecutor Michael Dennis Lockard, in the open trial of Ramírez, accused of cocaine trafficking and possession of weapons.
“Tony Hernández (brother of the Honduran president) is like Juan Orlando Hernandez, one of the defendant’s drug trafficking partners. He’s the man who led traffic to Orlando, ”Lockard said, addressing jurors during his recap of the two-week sessions since the trial began.
For more than an hour, the prosecutor’s office recalled the statements of the lead witness, the former leader of the Honduran cartel of Los Cachiros, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, as well as two protected witnesses who testified under false names and who corroborated the information provided by Rivera.
THE BEGINNING IN MIAMI
According to the prosecution’s report, the accused and drug trafficker Melvin Sandres, aka “ Metro, ” sold cocaine in Miami during the first decade of this millennium until, fearing being discovered, they returned to Honduras, where Ramirez sourcesWith the help of Metro, a cousin of the Los Cachiros leaders, he began working with the cartel to help them transport drug shipments from Colombia to the Guatemalan border on their way to Mexico and later to the United States.
The prosecutor recalled transporting three alleged shipments for a total of 1,500 kilos of cocaine.
“But the defendant was not satisfied with protecting other people’s cocaine. He wanted to be the leader, he wanted to be the one who bought and sold the cocaine himself,” Lockard told the court, which will have to turn to the court after hearing the latest charges. pull back. deliberate.
The prosecution argues that this is the reason that prompted Fuentes Ramírez to buy and sell cocaine directly and to open a drug lab to treat basic cocaine imported from Colombia and convert it into cocaine with the aim of increasing profits.
He defended the lab with automatic weapons, assault rifles and grenade launchers, a weapon he also used to protect the Los Cachiros drug shipments when he was working with them, according to what emerged.
JUAN ORLANDO HERNÁNDEZ, “PARTNER” OF THE DEFENDANT
It is a company for which, according to the prosecutor’s office, he sought the support of President Juan Orlando Hernández and his brother Tony, after Los Cachiros turned his back on him.
Lockard claimed that Ramírez bribed Juan Orlando Hernández in exchange for protection, as did Los Cachiros.
But Juan Orlando Hernández didn’t just want the defendant’s money. He wanted access to the defendant’s cocaine. The defendant’s laboratory was a short distance from Honduras’ largest port, Puerto Cortez, and Juan Orlando wanted the defendant’s cocaine to be exported from there. ‘said the prosecutor.
Lockard added that Hernández offered the defendant the contact of his brother Tony.
THE COST OF DEFENSE AGAINST RIVERA’S TESTIMONY
For his part, the lawyer for Ramirez sourcesAbraham Moskowitz, his defense focused on discrediting the leader’s testimony The Cachiros, who appeared before the government as a cooperating witness.
“Leonel Rivera is the key and if you don’t believe him there is no reasonable doubt (to convict the suspect) and there are many reasons not to found Leonel Rivera. He is one of the foremost drug traffickers in the world, he traded more than 100 tons of cocaine in the United States, ”said Moskowitz.
The lawyer also recalled that Rivera herself admitted murdering 78 people and ordered the murder.
“That man has no morals, he has no scruples and probably has no soul, and I tell you, he cannot be believed,” Moskowitz concluded. EFE