A former Honduran National Police chief is facing weapons and narcotics charges in New York, where authorities alleged on Thursday that he traded his law enforcement power to secure US-bound cocaine deliveries.
The charges were filed before the federal court of Manhattan against Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, known as "El Tigre" or "The Tiger." He was not in custody. Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman disclosed that Bonilla played a central role in a vicious international drug ring, acting on behalf of former Honduran congressman Tony Hernández Alvarado and his brother, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Prosecutors have charged that President Hernández - who is named as a co-conspirator - and his nephew, Tony, entrusted Bonilla with "special assignments like murder."
In May 2012, at a time when Honduras had one of the highest homicide rates in the world, Bonilla, an intimidating figure known as El Tigre (the Tiger), was elected national police chief.
In that position, Bonilla partnered with US anti-narcotics forces working in Honduras and helped establish a special police unit that partnered with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, leading to several high-profile drug traffickers' indictment, including the president's brother.
The president, who denied any wrongdoing, has maintained close ties with the White House and has been welcomed by United States President Donald Trump on many occasions in the Oval Office.
The reason seems to be the willingness of Hernandez to cooperate with controversial US immigration laws. One of those is a September agreement in which Honduras vowed to accept non-Honduran migrants who had been removed from the US after being denied an opportunity to claim asylum there.
Bonilla Valladares oversaw the transport of several tons of cocaine bound for the US, used high-powered weaponry to protect the contraband and accomplish the mission, and got involved in brutality, including the killing of a rival drug kingpin, Berman said in a release.
Wendy Woolcock, an official of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Bonilla's protection of politically connected drug traffickers was a "horrific violation" of his oath. The o60-year Bonilla told Honduras' local media Thursday that he had not committed any crime.
Owing to ongoing reports of abuse, including that Bonilla had engaged in death squads targeting alleged gang members, the US called for Bonilla's dismissal from the police job in 2013.
Previously Bonilla was the Copán department's regional police chief on the Guatemalan border, one of the most important points on the drug trafficking corridor.
