Brick after brick of cocaine flowed for years into the United States from countries like Venezuela and Colombia, all of it funneled through the tiny Central American nation of Honduras.
Aircraft flown from clandestine dirt airstrips and smuggler vessels disguised as fishing trawlers found a safe haven there, U.S. officials said. And the ruthless gangs that operated them, the officials said, had a partner and protector in the country’s two-term president, Juan Orlando Hernández.
Opening arguments in Mr. Hernández’s trial on conspiracy to import narcotics are scheduled for Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He is accused of taking part in a scheme that lasted more than 20 years and brought more than 500 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.
Mr. Hernández used proceeds to finance his presidential campaigns, U.S. officials said, then directed the Honduran police and military to protect the smugglers who paid him off. One accused co-conspirator was killed in a Honduran prison as part of an effort to protect Mr. Hernández, according to an indictment.
When he was extradited to New York in 2022, U.S. officials said Mr. Hernández sanctioned violence and reveled in his ability to flood America with cocaine. The former president’s brother was said to have told a trafficker that Mr. Hernández was going to “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”
That brother, Tony Hernández, who had served in the Honduran Congress, was convicted in 2019 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Former President Hernández, who has also been charged with possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns and destructive devices, has denied wrongdoing. He said in a social media post just before he was taken into custody in Honduras: “I’m ready to present myself voluntarily and defend myself in accordance with the law.”
It is not unprecedented for a former head of state to face charges in New York — Mr. Hernández is not even the first Honduran president to do so. Rafael Callejas, who was president from 1990 to 1994, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn in 2016 to taking bribes while leading that country’s soccer federation. Alfonso Portillo, a former president of Guatemala, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan in 2014 to accepting bribes in exchange for diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
The closest parallel to Mr. Hernández is Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former leader of Panama. He went to trial in federal court in Miami and was found guilty in 1992 of allowing the Medellín drug cartel to ship enormous amounts of cocaine through his country to the United States in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
The trial may provide some measure of resolution for Honduras, a poverty-stricken country of some 10 million that has struggled for decades with corruption and violence, and where Mr. Hernández has become deeply unpopular.
His government failed to rein in crime or build a healthy economy and hundreds of thousands of desperate Hondurans left the country, with many aiming to enter the United States. Mr. Hernández’s successor, Xiomara Castro, accused him of turning the country into a “narco-dictatorship.”
In both of his presidential campaigns, prosecutors said, Mr. Hernández used drug money to bribe election officials and manipulate the vote count. Widespread distrust of the results of the second election, in 2017, led to protests that blocked roads and bridges. Prosecutors said that Mr. Hernández gave money to a political party colleague who paid gang members to commit violence and that demonstrators died during the confrontations with security forces that followed.
Fireworks exploded around the capital of Tegucigalpa in 2022 when the Honduran Supreme Court approved Mr. Hernández’s extradition to the United States, prompting celebrations that included chants of “Juancho is going to New York,” referring to the former president’s nickname.
The indictments sketch a sprawling conspiracy and a breathtaking level of corruption, describing how elected officials solicited and took bribes, formed alliances with traffickers and created front companies to launder money.
Prosecutors have said that they plan to bring cooperating witnesses and some co-conspirators to the stand. One anticipated witness was described as a man who provided security for a Honduran trafficking group known as “Los Cachiros.”
Another is Alex Ardon, a former trafficker who was mayor of the municipality of El Paraíso and who prosecutors said was expected to testify that the Hernández brothers trusted a high-ranking member of the Honduran National Police with special assignments, including murder.
One of the most striking exhibits may be ledgers recovered by the Honduran military police, along with firearms, grenades and cash, from a car in which a trafficker was a passenger. Those ledgers, prosecutors said, included Juan Orlando Hernández’s initials, along with details of large-scale cocaine transactions.
