Honduras extradites former president to US to face drug charges

The U.S government has charged former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez with drug and weapons offences, the Justice Department said.

The justice department announced the charges on Thursday, shortly after Hernandez was taken in handcuffs to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plane in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and extradited to the United States.

Hernandez, 53, left office on 27 January after two terms as president. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have accused him of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from violent drug traffickers in exchange for protection from law enforcement.

He is charged with drug trafficking conspiracy and two related weapons charges, which carry a combined mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Hernandez is expected to plead not guilty upon arraignment. He has repeatedly denied any involvement with drug traffickers, describing the allegations as lies made up by criminals who are trying to reduce their own sentences through cooperation.

“This is revenge from the cartels, it’s an orchestrated plot so that no government will confront them again,” he said in a handwritten letter.

“Part of that conspiracy has been a campaign of hate and misinformation. But it’s evident, the contradictions of criminals, trial after trial, they lie and contradict themselves.”

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Al-Jazeera