Federal prosecutors in New York said in court Tuesday that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández plotted to ship cocaine to the U.S. with alleged drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, arrested in Florida on trafficking and arms charges in March 2020. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig, in his opening statements in Fuentes Ramírez's trial, said an accountant overheard Hernández tell Fuentes Ramírez he wanted to to "shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.'"
"They plotted to send as much cocaine as possible to the United States," Gutwillig said. He dated the incident to 2013 or 2014, and said the accountant, who prosecutors are calling José Sánchez, will testify in the trial. A lawyer for Fuentes Ramírez responded that Sánchez isn't a credible witness and is testifying to obtain U.S. asylum. Hernández reiterated his claims of innocence on Monday, tweeting that the drug traffickers are implicating him for his anti-trafficking efforts and to obtain lighter sentences, The Associated Press reports.
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