Former Honduran mayor of El Paraiso and convicted drug trafficker. Hamilcar Alexander Ardon confirmed this Wednesday that he was present when the now convicted former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman In 2013, he donated a million dollars to the campaign of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

This was announced in New York at the beginning of the drug trafficking trial against the former president. A drug trafficker confirmed what he said at the New York drug trafficking trial of Tony Hernandez, the younger brother of the former president who was sentenced to life in prison.

Also this He dealt drugs with Tony Hernandez. and that his son Victor Ardon helped him in his business.

Said Juan Orlando Hernandez helped him protect the smuggling of tons of cocaine into the US and gave him a million dollars in return.

Ardon, who is serving his sentence at Belleville prison in neighboring New Jersey after pleading guilty in 2019, is second witness called by the United States to testify this Wednesday after the start of a drug trafficking trial against Hernandez, who served as president of Honduras for two terms, from 2014 to 2022.

The convict assured from the witness stand that Hernandez helped him with prosecutors to keep them from interfering with his drug trafficking activities. and answered “no” when asked how much cocaine Honduran authorities had seized.

“How has this helped you in your drug trafficking activities?” – asked the prosecutor’s office, after which the case was heard in Kevin Castel’s courtroom: “With the prosecutor’s office, so that they don’t investigate me”.

“What did he do in response?” – the prosecutor asked again. “I helped him politically and financially,” responded Ardon, who was convicted of drug trafficking, conspiracy with other groups (to traffic drugs), as well as weapons possession, murder and money laundering.

Former mayor He claimed to have met JOH, is known to be a former president several times, and the first time was in 2009 (when Hernández was a member of the National Congress).

At the beginning of the interrogation, the prosecutor’s office asked him if he saw anyone in the room who helped him in drug trafficking operations, receiving a “yes” answer, after which he said “Juan Orlando Hernandez” and also He pointed out where he was sitting and how he was dressed, while the former President looked at the witness.

A Honduran man who said he began dealing drugs around 2000, when he was about 20 years old, also indicated that He sent about 450 tons of cocaine to the United States. and that he carried AR-15s and AK-47s to protect his cargo, “and on some occasions” in the mountainous areas between Honduras and Guatemala, he used a bazooka.

Before Ardon, who will continue to testify this Thursday, prosecutors called the first witness in the high-profile case against Hernandez: Jose Sanchez, accountant of the company Graneros Nacionales, the meeting place of drug traffickers, which connected the former president with the Honduran drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, sentenced in 2022 to life imprisonment by the same judge Castel.

According to his testimony, Sanchez was present at two meetings between Fuentes and JOH, and He repeated what he had already pointed out during Fuentes’ trial in New York: he heard JOH say that “we’re going to squirt drugs in the faces of gringos and they won’t understand it.”

After jury selection on Tuesday, Hernandez’s trial began in earnest this Wednesday. after they heard the judge’s strict instructions.

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First was prosecutor David Robles, who assured the jury that they would present evidence to prove that Hernandez He used the Honduran police, army and justice system. “to protect drug dealers” and “to accumulate a lot of money.”

Then it was the turn of the defense, which This reduced the credibility of drug traffickers who would be witnesses for prosecutors. who are serving life or long sentences for drug trafficking and murder, and assured jurors that they were making deals with authorities in exchange for benefits for themselves and their families.

(according to information from EFE)