President of Honduras under US investigations for narcotics trade

United States prosecutors are investigating Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, according to a new court revealed by the Reuters news agency, piling pressure on a leader who prosecutors have already accused in court of participation in the nation’s bloody narcotics trade

In a court document filed Friday night in the Southern District of New York in the case of Giovanni Fuentes Ramirez in the Honduran drug smuggling case, US federal prosecutors said Hernandez himself was the target of an investigation, along with other "high-ranking officials.".

The filing did not say what Hernandez, who has been president since 2014, is being investigated for.

Last month, US prosecutors filed in a courtroom related to the same case stating that Hernandez accepted "tens of millions of dollars in drug-trafficking proceeds and, in turn, prosecutors, law enforcement, and [later] by 2013" Promised Drug Traffickers Protection from Extradition. To the United States ".

The Honduran government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hernandez has repeatedly denied any connection to the drug cartel.

The Honduran president has been a major US ally in Central America, and the investigation could complicate the Biden administration's efforts to invest $ 4bn in the region, including Honduras, to find out the root causes of the migration.

Prosecutors also said assistance in the ongoing investigation from the Honduran government has been "hardly forthcoming" and accused the Honduran government of providing "limited records" and not respecting extradition requests of potential witnesses against the president.

Hernandez's name frequently appeared in US court cases against Fuentes Ramirez, as well as a successful drug trafficking case against the president's brother, Tony Hernandez.

Previous court filings also show that, around 2013, the American Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Hernandez and others for drug trafficking and money laundering.

Friday's filing appeared as the first confirmation from US prosecutors that the Honduran president was currently under investigation by the US.