Honduran president's brother convicted of drug trafficking in U.S. trial

Honduran politician Juan Antonio (Tony) Hernndez was found guilty of U.S. drug trafficking charges on Friday after a two-week trial that featured dramatic accusations of corruption against his brother, the Central American nation's current president.

The verdict against Hernndez was handed up by a jury in federal court in Manhattan.

Hernndez, 41, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 17 and faces up to life in prison.

Hernndez was arrested in Miami in 2018 and charged with drug trafficking and possessing illegal weapons. U.S. prosecutors accused him of helping smuggle almost 200,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States while enjoying the protection of his brother, Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernndez.

President Hernndez has repeatedly denied the claims.

Tony Hernndez's two-week trial featured testimony from Honduran drug traffickers who are now in U.S. custody and co-operating with authorities, including, Amilcar Alexander Ardon, a former mayor, and Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, former leader of Honduras'sCachiros gang.

Some of the most explosive testimony in the trial came from Ardon, who told jurors that Tony Hernndez promised Mexican drug lord Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn protection for his shipments in exchange for a $1 million US donation to his brother's presidential campaign in 2013.

Rivera Maradiaga, who admitted to murdering 78 people, testified that he paid bribes to multiple officials including Juan Orlando Hernndez.

Tony Hernndez's lawyers urged jurors not to trust the prosecutors' co-operating witnesses, describing them as career criminals willing to lie to get their prison sentences reduced.

The president, who began his second term in January 2018 amid allegations of electoral fraud, has not been charged with a crime.

President Hernndez has represented himself as a tough anti-drug warrior, claiming responsibility for breaking up the nation's six most powerful cartels and extraditing 24 traffickers to the United States. He said traffickers were using his brother's trial to seek revenge.

Hernndez's administration faces pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to curb migration to the United States. The two countries struck a deal last month under which Honduras would take in more asylum seekers.