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

SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 29 – 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.

  On June 29 SDNY Judge P. Kevin Castel held a bond hearing on Otto Rene Salguero Morales. Inner City Press live tweeted it:

Judge Castel: Has there been a superseding indictment, S5? Assistant US Attorney: Yes, S5 is the operative indictment. Judge Castel: Mr. Feitel, has your client spoken with you? Inner City Press has covered the cousin / conflict, here.

Judge Castel: I understand Mr Freitel has a bail application. The circumstances of this case are somewhat unusual. Should I set a date in October for parties to return and say if there are any motion in the case? Feitel: Yes, it's always prudent to have deadline.

Judge Castel: I'll set this for Oct 8. Feitel: I hope that things have reopened by then. Judge Castel: I don't know if you'll be coming to NY for this defendant. I've made it abundantly clear I will not permit joint representation. Feitel: I'll stay for Otto.

Feitel: I believe someone else will represent Otto's cousin. Judge Castel: I will be happy to see that. Let me hear your application. Feitel: I'd like my client to be temporarily released. The lockdown hinder my ability to represent my client.Two family members are willing to post their property. We would consent to GPS and no Internet access. The custodians are citizens, they are employed. If he violated conditions, they would report him. They do not want to be complicit.

 Feitel: I have his passport. I will not be returning it. There is never a 100% guarantee of return to court. Otto came voluntarily to this country. There are questions if he has status. I am not an expert in immigration. The US knows he's hear - parole benefit.

 Feitel: My client is charged with crimes, but there are crimes outside of the United States. I understand there is an immigration detainer against him. But it may be they won't pick him up.

AUSA: This case is serious, with connections to El Chapo. The defendants have no legal status in this country. If the court released him, he could not walk around on the street.

 AUSA: The defendant is alleged to have connections with dangerous criminals throughout Latin America. If released he could just disappear. Inner City Press @innercitypress Judge Castel: The Court finds that the government has come forward and established this is a presumption case. The presumption has not been overcome. Nor is his release necessary to the defense at this stage. He is charged with cocaine important, machine guns...

Judge Castel: The declaration of Ms. Fahardo, living in Connecticut, said she met Otto her uncle in Guatemala. He has never been to her home. There is no basis for this court to order the US Marshals to leave this defendant into Manhattan. Denied. Inner City Press will continue to cover these cases.
On June 22 Judge Castel arraigned Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez, charged with cocaine importation and machine guns. The sealed complaint says the CC-4, Juan Orlando Hernandez, "told Fuentes Ramirez that he was interested in access to the Laboratory in part because of its proximity to a port in Honduras... CC-4 told Fuentes Ramirez that Hernandez Alvarado (CC-4's brother) was managing drug trafficking activities in Honduras."

On June 22, Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez pleaded not guilty.

  The Assistant US Attorney, now under Audrey Strauss, said they are ready to provide the defendant with discovery material.

 The defense lawyer said, The issue is how my client will be able to get and review the info while in MCC jail

  The proceeding was very short - a new conference will be held once Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez has reviewed discovery. He wants better medical treatment in MCC jail. Inner City Press will continue to cover this and related cases. All questions to the UN, where Antonio Guterres and spokesmen bragged of getting $50,000 from JOH's Honduras, presumptively some Chapo funds, have gone unanswered. Stephane Dujarric won't even take the questions, including about his role in working with Sri Lanka war criminal Palitha Kohona and UNCA to oust Inner City Press, story here, Kohona here), from one dictatorship to another the UN continues.

 On June 19, Ronald Enrique Salguero Portillo appeared before Judge Castel. Judge Castel began by saying it is not tolerable for the two cousins Salguero  to have the same lawyer, Robert Feitel. Judge Castel gave them 10 days to find a new lawyer.

Now Ronald's lawyer says he is NOT asking for bail today, would rather wait for a report to be conclude.

Ronald Salguero pleads not guilty to drugs and machine gun charges. Judge Castel asks: If I were to release him, wouldn't be then be detained by immigration?

Lawyer Feitel: That's doesn't always happen.

 Judge Castel: Why would a Federal judge release a person not in this country legally?

Defense lawyer Robert Feitel: My client needs to be out of jail to prepare his defense.

Judge Castel: I'm not going to adjudicate a bail application that is being deferred. Let me hear from the government about discovery.

AUSA: The parties are negotiating a protective order. 

Judge Castel: Let's set a conference for two weeks hence.

Time is excluded; Robert Feitel says he has spoken to both of his clients. In 2 weeks, he should have only one. Watch this site.

 On June 3, two days before Tony Hernandez' already postponed sentencing set for June 5, his new lawyer asked for another extension to July 6 - and says that probably won't be enough: "Re: United States v. Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado 15 Cr. 379 Dear Judge Castel: I represent Mr. Hernandez Alvarado. I write to request that Mr. Hernandez Alvarado’s sentencing, currently scheduled for June 5, be adjourned for at least a month."

  Now on June 4 Judge Castel has postponed the sentencing until September 16: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT as to Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado (2) on [161] LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge P. Kevin Castel from Peter E. Brill dated June 3, 2020 re: Request to Continue Sentencing. ENDORSEMENT: Sentencing is adjourned until September 16, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. (Signed by Judge P. Kevin Castel)." Justice delayed is justice denied. Inner City Press will stay on the case.

On May 27 it emerged that co-defendant Mauricio Hernandez Pineda has another free / taxpayer paid Criminal Justice Act lawyer: "NOTICE OF ATTORNEY APPEARANCE: Jennifer Rushing Louis-Jeune appearing for Mauricio Hernandez Pineda. Appearance Type: CJA Appointment." Where did all his money go?

 On May 11, this on Yani Benjamin Rosenthal Hidalgo: "The defendant pled guilty to engaging in a sophisticated money-laundering operation with the leaders of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organization in Honduras known as the “Cachiros.” Through his conduct, which occurred over a period of at least five years, the defendant provided the Cachiros with sources of funding for their criminal enterprise, a means to launder their narcotics proceeds, and public legitimacy, thereby contributing to an environment that allowed the Cachiros to thrive in their country and to import over 100 tons of cocaine into the United States. In connection with his plea, the defendant admitted that he authorized a company he controlled, Empacadora Continental, S.A. de C.V. (“Empacadora”), to purchase narcotics-derived cattle from Ganaderos Agricultores Del Norte S De RL De CV, a front company created by the leaders of the Cachiros. Empacadora, in turn, processed and exported meat to the United States, among other places, in exchange for payments to Empacadora from U.S.-based companies that totaled $500,000. In addition, the defendant and his co-conspirators, including his father (the former Vice President of Honduras), used their political power and business holdings in other ways in order to assist the Cachiros in laundering millions of dollars in drug-trafficking proceeds. They helped the Cachiros launder drug-trafficking proceeds through, and obtain sham loans in the name of, three other Honduras-based businesses. These financial transactions in Honduras totaled over $15 million. The defendant also separately accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money, styled as purported “campaign contributions,” from one of the leaders of the Cachiros and another major Honduran drug trafficker. At bottom, the defendant took advantage of his vast political and social power to facilitate the activities of violent drug-traffickers in a country that has been ravaged by narcotics trafficking. The defendant did so despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful individuals, and a member of one of the most powerful families, in Honduras, who did not need to accept any business from drug-traffickers in order to maintain his social position or vast wealth. Sadly, the defendant, who had opportunities many in his country do not, chose to use these opportunities in the worst way possible. And the system that the defendant helped proliferate continues to this day—as in part reflected by recent prosecutions in this District, rampant cocaine trafficking and corruption continues in Honduras, aided in large part by politicians and government officials like the defendant. See, e.g., United States v. Fabio Lobo, 15 Cr. 174 (LGS) (Fabio Lobo, the son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, pleaded guilty to a drug-trafficking charge and was subsequently sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment); United States v. Mejia Vargas, et al., 15 Cr. 174 (LGS) (seven members of the Honduran National Police (“HNP”) pled guilty to weapons charges and/or drug-trafficking offenses); United States v. Fredy Renan Najera Montoya, 15 Cr. 378 (PGG) (Honduran Congressman pled guilty to drug-trafficking and firearms offenses and acknowledged that he facilitated the importation of at least approximately 20,000 kilograms of cocaine into the United States); United States v. Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado, 15 Cr. 379 (PKC) (former Honduran Congressman and brother of current President of Honduras convicted of drug trafficking and weapons offenses after trial, faces a 40-year mandatory minimum sentence)."
 
  This while still-free President Juan Orlando Hernandez, implicated in the case, is now promoting hydroxychloroquine as countering Covid-19, and seeks $340 million from the IMF, here.

  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.

   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).