"Ex-Honduran President Convicted of Drug Trafficking; Israeli Official Implicated in Corruption Trial"

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández has been convicted in a New York trafficking trial, making him the first former head of state to be found guilty of drug trafficking in the United States since 1992. Witnesses described bribes paid to Hernández’s political campaigns, including from the notorious former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. The conviction marks a major victory for the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s strategy of targeting public officials whose support traffickers rely upon, but also raises questions about the US government’s past collaboration with the former president. Hernández faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.