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A judge Honduran authorized on Friday the extradition to USA of the former head of the National Police, Juan Carlos the “Tiger” Bonilla, accused of “Supervise” drug trafficking operations for former president Juan Orlando Hernández, arrested in February.
“It has been granted by the judge natural in the first instance extradition of the citizen Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, according to the petitions that have been formulated by the Court of the Southern District of New York”, announced the spokesman for the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Melvin Duarte, at the end of a hearing.
Sight: Assets of former Honduran President Hernández seized, after extradition to the US
The judge Hours ago, the hearing for the presentation and evacuation of means of evidence began in the case instructed to ex boss policerequired by USAas announced by the CSJ on Twitter.
In a statement, the Court detailed that the Manhattan court attributes three charges to Bonilla related to “participating in the conspiracy to import controlled substance into the USA (…), use or carry weapons (…) in relation to the conspiracy to import narcotics charged in the first charge.”
Duarte said that the defense has until next Monday to appeal the resolution, as did that of former President Hernández.
“If the guarantee of the second instance is not used, that is, the presentation of the corresponding appeal, the decision of the natural judge would be final”added the spokesman.
“Co-conspirator” of drug trafficking
Bonilla was captured on March 9 north of Tegucigalpa. He was transported to the headquarters of the Infantry Battalion, 5 km south of the capital, to where the judge attended the first hearing, who notified him of the request for USA.
The magistrate kept him in the battalion and set April 8 for the second hearing. After the resolution, the judge kept him in the same place.
Bonilla, director of the Police between 2012 and 2013, had been mentioned as a “co-conspirator” of drug trafficking of former deputy Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, in a trial in which the brother of the former president Honduran He was sentenced in March 2021 to life in prison in the Southern District Court of New York.
Since May 2021 it had been reported that USA had requested the extradition de Bonilla, who then denied the charges attributed to him by the Manhattan prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman.
“Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, ex boss of the Honduran National Police, allegedly abused his positions in the Honduran police to flout the law and play a key role in a violent international drug trafficking conspiracy,” Berman said on April 30, 2020.
Justice follows the same procedure with Bonilla that it followed in the case of former President Hernández, whose extradition it was approved by the 15 magistrates of the CSJ on March 28.
Pending extradition of JOH
Hernández’s defense, commonly known by its acronym JOH, filed an amparo appeal to stop the extraditionbut was denied.
Duarte reported that 12 magistrates signed the minutes of the extradition and three are missing to sign to order the delivery of the former ruler a USA.
In the petition, USA He accused Hernández of three crimes, such as “conspiracy (…) to import controlled substance” such as cocaine and “possessing firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in support of the conspiracy to import narcotics.”
Between 2004 and 2022 “Hernández participated in the violent conspiracy of drug trafficking to receive shipments of multiple tons of cocaine sent to Honduras from Colombia and Venezuela, among other places, by air and sea routes (…) the conspiracy transported more than approximately 500,000 kilograms of cocaineto to through Honduras to a USA”.
US prosecutors have referred to the former president as “co-conspirator”and which turned Honduras into a “narco-state” by involving the military, police and other civilians in drug trafficking to USA.
Hernández, a former Washington ally, criticizes the justice of USA affirming that he points to it based on “declarations of drug traffickers and confessed murderers” who were extradited by his government.
Source: Elcomercio
