Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has been sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $8 million for enabling drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to help get tons of cocaine into the United States.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been convicted in New York of conspiring with drug traffickers, his military and police to enable tons of cocaine to reach the United States.

Hondurans call it the “Trial of the Century,” but it’s occurring in a New York courtroom some 3,500 miles away.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took the witness stand in his defense at his New York trial, denying that he teamed up with drug dealers to protect them in return for millions of dollars in bribes.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is facing charges that he ran his impoverished Central American nation as a “narco-state."

For years, Juan Carlos Bonilla, better known as “El Tigre,” was a feared figure in Honduras.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has appeared virtually in federal court in New York to face drug trafficking and weapons charges after he was arrested in Honduras and extradited to the United States.

Honduras has extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States to face drug trafficking and weapons charges.

A court in Honduras has authorized prosecutors to seize properties, bank accounts and vehicles linked to former President Juan Orlando Hernández.

A judge in Honduras has ruled that former President Juan Orlando Hernández should be extradited to the United States to face drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández was arrested at the request of the United States on drug trafficking charges Tuesday and a Honduran judge will decide if he is eventually extradited to stand trial in the U.S. While Hernández was president, he was untouchable for Honduras’ co-opted justice system and successive U.S. administrations made no move alienate him.

The arrest of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández and the images of a leader shackled and paraded before cameras like a common criminal are a stunning reversal for a man who for years seemed impervious to growing allegations of corruption.

The United States has formally requested the arrest and extradition of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on drug and weapons charges less than three weeks after he left office.

Police have arrested former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a step toward fulfilling a request by the United States government for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The Biden administration last year quietly placed former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on a classified list of officials suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in Central America.

Xiomara Castro has been sworn in as Honduras’ first female president amid a sea of waving flags in the national stadium.

Aides to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele say he's refused to meet with a visiting senior U.S. diplomat over what he sees as a pattern of slights from Democrats and the Biden administration.

“The defendant was a Honduran congressman who, along with his brother Juan Orlando Hernández, played a leadership role in a violent, state sponsored drug trafficking conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote. AdThe U.S. government wants Tony Hernández to give up $138.5 million in “blood money” from his drug trafficking and pay an additional $10 million fine. They say he also sold weapons to drug traffickers, some of which came from Honduras’ military, and controlled drug laboratories in Colombia and Honduras. They allege that among those bribes was $1 million from notorious Mexican capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to Juan Orlando Hernández. In those, Fuentes admitted knowing drug traffickers but denied having paid any money to president Hernández.

The accountant said he felt fear seeing Hernández and a drug trafficker sitting at the same table. “I was seeing the candidate for the presidency meeting with a drug trafficker,” he said. That alleged drug trafficker was Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, whose New York trial is in its second week. The accountant testified that that movement of drugs would be done with the help of the military and police. In another meeting at the company’s offices without Fuentes Ramírez present, Hernández boasted about siphoning money from Honduras’ social security system, the accountant testified.

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)TEGUCIGALPA – Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández’s name keeps popping up in the New York trial of an alleged drug trafficker. And one of the candidates running to replace him in Sunday’s primary elections has been convicted in the same court of laundering money for the same cartel. Polls closed at 5 p.m. and the vote count had begun, but there was no immediate word on when results would be available. Political analyst and three-time former presidential candidate Olban Valladares said the elections are an opportunity for Hondurans to begin to free themselves of failed leaders. But voters will also choose the candidates who will compete for the 128 seats of the National Congress in November, as well as 298 local governments and other positions.

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2020, file photo, Honduras' President Juan Orlando Hernandez arrives for the swearing-in ceremony for Guatemala's new President Alejandro Giammattei at the National Theater in Guatemala City. AdThe accusation came in the third day of testimony in the trial of alleged drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez. U.S. prosecutors have made it clear that allegations against President Hernández would arise during the trial, though he has not been charged. During that trial, the president was accused of accepting more than $1 million from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Alvarez said that he had never taken money from Rivera Maradiaga, who called the politicians he allegedly bribed “narco-politicians.”Ad“I don’t have anything to hide,” Alvarez wrote.

“They plotted to send as much cocaine as possible to the United States,” Gutwillig said of the president and Fuentes Ramírez. But much of the prosecutors’ artillery appears aimed at Hernández, who they said helped Fuentes Ramírez’s drug trafficking along with other high-ranking officials. Prosecutors have previously said that Fuentes Ramírez paid Hernández $25,000 to be allowed to move drugs through the country without interference. He says that the allegations against him come from drug traffickers seeking revenge and looking to lighten their sentences. He has said Fuentes Ramírez had weapons and body guards because Honduras is a dangerous country.

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks to the reporters as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. Newly proposed U.S. legislation introduced Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, targets Orlando Hernandez as allegations of ties to drug trafficking grow. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)TEGUCIGALPÁ – TEGUCIGALPÁHonduran President Juan Orlando Hernández says that antinarcotics cooperation with the United States could “collapse” if U.S. authorities believe “false testimony” accusing him of cooperating with traffickers. Earlier this month, U.S. prosecutors filed documents in an upcoming trial suggesting the president himself was under investigation. One of his numerous brothers, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was convicted in New York of a drug conspiracy in 2019.

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks to the reporters as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. Newly proposed U.S. legislation introduced Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, targets Orlando Hernandez as allegations of ties to drug trafficking grow. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)TEGUCIGALPÁ – TEGUCIGALPÁHonduran President Juan Orlando Hernández warned Wednesday that antinarcotics cooperation with the United States could “collapse” if U.S. authorities believe “false testimony” in U.S. courts accusing him of cooperating with traffickers. He suggested that traffickers were trying to manipulate U.S. authorities into helping them take vengeance on the Honduran officials pursuing them. One of his numerous brothers, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was convicted in New York of a drug conspiracy in 2019.

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2019 file photo, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks to the reporters as he leaves a meeting at the Organization of American States, in Washington. Newly proposed U.S. legislation introduced Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, targets Orlando Hernandez as allegations of ties to drug trafficking grow. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)MEXICO CITY – Newly proposed U.S. legislation targets Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández as allegations of ties to drug trafficking grow. As the administration of President Joe Biden seeks to return the issues of corruption and human rights to relations with Honduras and other Central American countries, a group of Democratic senators says the U.S. government’s relationship with Honduras must change. Under the administration of President Donald Trump, immigration overshadowed everything else in the relationship.

(UNTV via AP)NEW YORK – U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country's armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States. The documents quote Hernández as saying he wanted to “'shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos' by flooding the United States with cocaine." The motions filed Friday with the U.S. Southern District of New York do not specifically name the president, referring to him as “CC-4,” or co-conspirator No. During that trial, the president was accused of accepting more than $1 million from Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — an accusation repeated in the new motions. At this time, CC-4 was pursuing election as the President of Honduras as a member of the Partido Nacional de Honduras (the “National Party”),” the motion said.

French President Emmanuel Macron reacts as he meets Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020 in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the presidential Elysee Palace announced on Thursday. DONALD TRUMPPresident Donald Trump announced in October that he and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, tested positive for the coronavirus. BORIS JOHNSONThe British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, after facing criticism for downplaying the pandemic. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

He was moved to intensive care in April after his virus symptoms dramatically worsened a day after he was hospitalized for what were called routine tests. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP, File)JOHANNESBURG – President Donald Trump has joined a growing group of world leaders who have been infected with the coronavirus. BORIS JOHNSONThe British prime minister was the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, after facing criticism for downplaying the pandemic. Other top officials in former Soviet states who were infected include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. GAMBIAVice President Isatou Touray tested positive in July along with the ministers of finance, energy and agriculture.

CNN videoTEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Dead protesters, a "failed state" and accusations of high-level drug trafficking. While many Hondurans continue to leave the country in search of a new life, members of a variety of groups from across society are making their feelings known in the streets. His brother Antonio was arrested by US investigators on drug trafficking charges in November 2018, but he has denied the charges. Violence has flared during the recent protests after Hernandez put soldiers on the streets, leading to widespread condemnation. Honduras saw homicide rates more than double between 2005 and 2010, and became the world's most murderous country in 2012.