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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon, Thread Video
Honduras - The Source - The Root - etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 3 – During the trial that convicted Tony Hernandez, the brother of Honduras' president Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH), on all four counts of guns and narcotics trafficking and false statements, the Honduran National Police came up again and again in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

 Now on March 3 another arrest, this one citing "CC-4" while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres continues to refusal all questions about his support for involved Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez. The March 3 announcement is that "GEOVANNY DANIEL FUENTES RAMIREZ was charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machineguns and destructive devices.  DEA agents arrested FUENTES RAMIREZ on March 1, 2020, at Miami International Airport as he attempted to depart the United States, and was presented yesterday afternoon in Miami federal court.     Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “As alleged, Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramirez was, up until his arrest by the DEA two days ago, a prolific, powerful, and murderous cocaine trafficker in Honduras.  As further alleged, Fuentes Ramirez paved the way for unimpeded shipment of multi-ton loads of cocaine by bribing police and a high-ranking Honduran politician, and reporting directly to Tony Hernandez, another co-conspirator in the scheme and himself a former Honduran congressman.  Thanks to the DEA, a key player in the unholy alliance of Honduran officials and drug traffickers is now in custody and facing a possible life behind bars.”     DEA Special Agent in Charge Wendy Woolcock said:  “The arrest of Geovanny Daniel Fuentes Ramirez is yet another example of DEA’s perseverance to bring to justice criminal associates of corrupt Honduran public officials and law enforcement officers who enabled the trafficking of massive amounts of cocaine headed to the United States.  These corrupt arrangements resulted in horrible violence in Honduras and beyond.  The DEA will continue to aggressively pursue and bring to justice those who participated in these activities, threatened the rule of law, and operated with complete disregard for human life for their financial gain.”     According to the allegations contained in the Complaint[1] charging FUENTES RAMIREZ, evidence presented at the October 2019 trial of Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado in the Southern District of New York, and statements in open court during the prosecution of Hernandez Alvarado:     Between approximately 2004 and 2020, multiple drug trafficking organizations in Honduras and elsewhere worked together, and with support from certain prominent public and private individuals, including Honduran politicians and law enforcement officials, to receive multi-ton loads of cocaine sent to Honduras from, among other places, Colombia via air and maritime routes, and to transport the drugs westward in Honduras toward the border with Guatemala and eventually to the United States.  For protection from law enforcement interference, and in order to facilitate the safe passage through Honduras of multi-ton loads of cocaine, FUENTES RAMIREZ and other drug traffickers paid bribes to Honduran public officials, including certain members of the Honduran National Police and the Honduran National Congress.  For example, following an October 2019 trial in the Southern District of New York, former Honduran congressman Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado was convicted of drug trafficking, weapons, and false statements charges related to his role in this scheme.  Hernandez Alvarado is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel on April 15, 2020.       Beginning in or about 2009, FUENTES RAMIREZ and others established and operated a cocaine laboratory in the Cortés Department of Honduras, where they produced hundreds of kilograms of cocaine each month.  FUENTES RAMIREZ worked with others to receive cocaine shipments and transport cocaine that he produced, including using planes that landed and departed from a clandestine airstrip that he operated near the Cortés Department.  In order to protect these large quantities of cocaine and his foothold as a large-scale drug trafficker in Honduras, FUENTES RAMIREZ and his workers used firearms, including 9 millimeter handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, and AR-15 assault rifles, and resorted to significant acts of violence, including murder.  In or about 2012, for example, after FUENTES RAMIREZ’s cocaine laboratory was raided by law enforcement, FUENTES RAMIREZ participated in the stabbing murder of a law enforcement official who FUENTES RAMIREZ believed to have been involved in the investigation of the laboratory.      In or about 2013, FUENTES RAMIREZ paid at least approximately $25,000 to a high-ranking Honduran official referred to in the Complaint as “CC-4,” in exchange for protection from further interventions by law enforcement targeting FUENTES RAMIREZ and his drug trafficking activities.  Around the time of the bribe, during a series of meetings between FUENTES RAMIREZ, CC-4, and others, CC-4 expressed interest in access to FUENTES RAMIREZ’s cocaine laboratory because of its proximity to a major commercial shipping port, agreed to facilitate the use of Honduran armed forces personnel as security for FUENTES RAMIREZ’s drug trafficking activities, and instructed FUENTES RAMIREZ to report directly to Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado for subsequent drug trafficking activities. "

 Tony Hernandez asked SDNY Judge P. Kevin Castel for a free lawyer, saying he has no more money. On February 24, the hand-over was to occur at 2:30 pm. Inner City Press went to Judge Castel's Courtroom 11D, finding there many it recognized from the trial. But Tony Hernandez would not come out of the holding cell. Inner City Press live tweeted thread here.

  Tony has been given, under the Criminal Justice Act and so at US taxpayer expense, a lawyer from the white shoe law firm Milbank, Katherine R. Goldstein, whom we've previously covered representing a Chinese alleged money launderer, here. (Milbank is also in the SDNY in the Puerto Rico debt case, here).

  Now on February 25, a second Milbank lawyer has filed a notice of appearance to represent convicted narco-trafficker Tony Hernandez: "NOTICE OF ATTORNEY APPEARANCE: Kingdar Prussien appearing for Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado. Appearance Type: Pro Bono. (Prussien, Kingdar)." Pro bono means for free. Inner City Press intends to have more on this.
Tony's sentencing is now April 15. Inner City Press will have more on this.

  Earlier, Inner City Press first reported that Mauricio Hernández Pineda, a former member of the National Police of Honduras,  has been arrested and detained on consent. He signed a financial affidavit of poverty - ironic - and was assigned CJA court appointed counsel, Michael Martin. Soon he will appeared before SDNY Judge Castel. Inner City Press will remain on the case.

Also during Tony Hernandez' trial, the drug ledgers of one Nery Orlando López Sanabria a/k/a Magdaleno were used by the SDNY prosecutors.

  Here is an Inner City Press tweeted photo of notebook mentioning "JOH," in Spanish. Inner City Press has repeated asked the United Nations, in New York and Geneva, for comment. Dead silence.

A week after the Tony Hernandez verdict, Magdaleno was murdered in a supposedly maximum security prison in Santa Barbara, Honduras.

  The video are very troubling [WARNING] including the guards letting the killers in, here.

  UNSG Antonio Guterres refused all Press questions about Honduras during the trial and in the nine days since the verdict. On October 29 Inner City Press has asked: "what are the comments and actions of Guterres on the video taped killing of Nery Orlando López a/k/a Magdaleno Meza Fúnez, whose notebooks were used to convict Presidential brother Tony Hernandez in the SDNY court this month? Now Reinero Valle has, as Madgaleno had before his assassination, asked to be moved out of that El Pozo prison due to threats to silence him as a witness, so far without response to his lawyer Nazario Luque? Again, immediately provide the report / read-out of Guterres' four person panel sent to Honduras, and complete read out of his meeting with JOH." Now as of November 2, as Guterres presumptively uses El Chapo's money via JOH to visit strongmen leaders in Turkey and Thailand then, uncontested, waste money at his real home in Lisbon, nothing. Total corrupt.

This while Guterres' UN, despite its protestations and misuse of the concept, enable fake news in Honduras.

   On October 27 a publication in Honduras said the UN office of human rights has said nothing. But nothing had been emailed out to its press list, and nothing could be found on its website in Geneva - it turns out news it doesn't want anyone or at least not the drug funded dictators it answers to see it, it puts on obscure sub-sites, see below.

At 9 am on October 28 Geneva time Inner City Press in writing asked UN "High Commissioner for Human Rights" Michelle Bachelet and her spokesman Rupert Colville this: "Hello, this is a Press request for OHCHR / Bachelet comment on the murder, on video, in Honduras of 'Magdeleno' whose drug trafficking notebook were used in recent SDNY conviction of Presidential brother Tony Hernandez, a trial Inner City Press covered every day. See video of killing here.

   More on Patreon here.

  Inner City Press which covered the trial daily has asked the UN for the comment of SG Antonio Guterres who met with JOH in September 2019 and did not even mention corruption, much less drug trafficking.

 On October 26 after the murder and release of the video, Inner City Press went to (try to) pose the question to Guterres. The response? Video here. Three UN security vehicles, and even a publicly funded NYPD detective, "protecting" Guterres who already wastes untold public funds on security. Disgusting. A protest has been called for, and is needed - @InnerCityPress response here.  More on Patreon here.

Inner City Press on October 18 asked the defendant's lawyer Omar Malone about this client's post arrest statement, the admitted murders by the cooperating witnesses, and upcoming sentencing submission. Video and answers here.

    Here was the post arrest statement as initially put in to the jury, as uploaded to YouTube by Inner City Press, here. The case is US v. Diaz Morales, 15-cr-00379 (Castel).