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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 3– The prosecution of the brother of Honduras' president for guns and drug running began with a bang on October 2 with the charge that already life imprisoned El Chapo Guzman gave the defendant $1 million for this brother, the president. The trial is before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel and Inner City Press is live tweeting it. See also Patreon here on the fast mention and shut-down of Nikki Haley's name.
 
  On the afternoon of October 3 Tony Hernandez was described urging $40,000 payments to his brother to get information on how to traffic drugs through Honduras. Here's some of how it went: "US calls its second witness, a DEA agent. He began as a translator then stationed in Imperial, California focusing on Mexican drug cartels. Chapo echo.

 Witness says Tony H urged him to give $40,000 to brother Orlando's campaign in order get info on trafficking coke

AUSA: Have you see the Tommy Hilfiger logo before? Witness: Yes. AUSA: Please publish it for the jury. Sir, have you ever seen a kilo of cocaine marked with the "T.H." stamp? Witness: Si

Photo introduced into evidence in #Honduras / Hernandez trial. AUSA, pointing: Who is that? Witness: It is the Guatemalan Jose Manuel [a/k/a] Che.

AUSA: Between 2007 and 2010, did the defendant provide you information about naval operations? Witness: Yes. AUSA: How much did you pay? Witness: $5000.

 AUSA: Turning your attention to Government Exhibit 500... Witness: There is a Honduran military base. AUSA: Did you pay them bribes? Witness: Yes. So they would keep me informed whether I could bring my cocaine shipment in.

To be continued...

  Earlier on October 3 Detective Miguel Reynoso testified and was cross examined about a car stop and seizure, including of a ledger with Tony Hernandez' name in it. Here's how it went:

Government's first witness in Miguel Reynoso, drug investigator; he's being asked about a vehicle search.  Reynoso identifies a Volkswagen he was ordered to search for drugs. Photo is admitted as Exhibit 351.

AUSA: What are you doing in this picture?  Reynoso: I am examining the motor of the Volkswagen. AUSA: I'd like to enter a stipulation of fact. Judge Castel: OK

Stipulation read in as Exh 1005: On June 6, 2018, police lawfully stopped 2 vehicles in Cortez, Honduras: a Toyota and a Volkswagen. The Honduran anti-drug directorate searched the vehicles and lawfully detained the occupants. One had false ID, of a dead man.

 AUSA: "Detective Reynoso, did you find any hidden compartments?" Yes, under the rear seat. We cut through a recent weld. And we found two grenades.

AUSA: "Detective Reynoso, did you have the opportunity to count the US currency found in the compartment?" Yes - it was $193,200. And there were 9 spiral notebooks. AUSA: We'll come back to those later.

AUSA: "Is there is fair and accurate depiction of cell phones and weapons you found?" Reynoso: Yes. AUSA: Where were they located? Reynoso: There were under the airbag in the dashboard.

 AUSA: Focusing on the middle of these three firearms that you found, what did it have? Reynoso: Apparently, a silencer.  AUSA: And where did you first encounter this 2 way radio? Reynoso: it was under the driver's side floor

 AUSA: Did they come a time when you reviewed the ledgers that you found? Reynoso: Yes. AUSA: Can you please highlight "Tony Hernandez" on the page?

Now the cross-examination of Detective Reynoso. "My name is Mike Tein and I speak for Tony Hernandez... You said it was 90% $20 bills. Now do you think it was less? Reynoso: Most were 20s. Tein: Did you write down the breakdown, of 20s and other denominations?

 Tein (insisting) did you put the count by denomination in your report? Reynoso: Yes. Tein: Who did you count it with? AUSA: Objection - asked and answered. Now a sidebar with the white noise turned up . 

 AUSA: We'll stipulate to the admission of this into evidence. Tein: OK, it's Defendant Exhibit 1. May I ask a few more questions? Judge Castel: Yes. Tein (to Reynoso) Where were you when you wrote this report? Reynoso: In the public office.

 Reynoso: Specifically, we were in the office against narco-traffico in San Pedro Sula. Tein: Were the suspects with you there? Reynoso: In the same building. Tein: Have you received any training in writing reports? You make sure what you're signing is true?

Tony Hernandez' lawyer Tein is hammering away at a seeming 12 hour discrepancy on the signing of Detective Reynoso's report of the cash and guns and ledgers listing... Tony Hernandez. "So you signed it at 3:55 in the morning?" Reynoso: Yes.

 Judge Castel declares a break for the jurors. Then he too walks off the bench. Apparently no lawyers' arguments during this break.

Tein still digging into Detective Reynoso's report. Tein: you write it at the time so you don't have to worry about remembering? [Note: Judge Castel faced just this, on Tuesday in a child porn case]

 Tein: You're saying there's a report that lists out the denominations of the bills? Reynoso: Yes. It must be part of the records. Tein: You don't mean in this case, do you? Reynoso: No, back in Honduras. Tein: so you gave some to SDNY, and some not?

Tein: Do you know how the prosecutors from this District came into possession of some of your reports about the seizure of the Volkswagen? Reynoso: No. Tein: Have you seen a report in this case that actually lists the denominations of the money you seized?

Tein still at it. To Reynoso: Did you put the evidence out of the table like this, bit by bit, or did someone else do it? Why are there armed guards taking a picture? Reynoso:  I don't know. I don't remember.

Tein: Who brought with them the tools to cut into these compartments? Reynoso: We did [nosotros]. Tein: Did you yourself bring the tools? Did you arrive in one car or two? Who did you drive with? I'm not asking you to name him. Reynoso: I drove with my colleague.

AUSA cuts in, asking to shut down Tony Hernandez' cross examination: "The direct was 30 minutes and you've been on this topic for almost two hours." Tein: I have more questions.

 Tein gets to the point: So the ledgers weren't logged in for 13 days after their were seized? Reynoso: Right. Re-direct by AUSA: Did the name Tony Hernandez stand out to you during your review? Reynoso: Yes. The case of Tony Hernandez was well known. No further Questions

 Now Judge Castel calls the lunch break for the jury. Then as with morning break he leaves the bench, no lawyers' arguments.  We will continue.

  Back on October 2 before the explosive opening statements, Inner City Press was in the courtroom as Judge Castel posed questions to prospective jurors. Where do you live? What social media do you use? (Many answers of Facebook and Instagram; a technology executive who said she lives "in the neighborhood" of the courthouse talked about Twitter as well).

 The defendant sat with interpretation headphones on, with the strap not on top of his head but behind his neck. Now he accused of taking money for El Chapo for his brother the president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was only recently in New York holding a grip and grin with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, linked to other bribery convictions in the SDNY (including Patrick Ho of CEFC China Energy) but benefiting from now from immunity.

  The US Attorney's Office has said: "From at least in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2016, 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 official interference, and in order to facilitate the safe passage through Honduras of multi-hundred-kilogram loads of cocaine, drug traffickers paid bribes to public officials, including certain members of the National Congress of Honduras. 

HERNANDEZ is a former member of the National Congress of Honduras, the brother of the current president of Honduras, and a large-scale drug trafficker who worked with other drug traffickers in, among other places, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico, to import cocaine into the United States. 

From at least in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2016, HERNANDEZ was involved in processing, receiving, transporting, and distributing multi-ton loads of cocaine that arrived in Honduras via planes, go-fast vessels, and, on at least one occasion, a submarine.  HERNANDEZ had access to cocaine laboratories in Honduras and Colombia, at which some of the cocaine was stamped with the symbol “TH,” i.e., “Tony Hernandez.”  HERNANDEZ also coordinated and, at times, participated in providing heavily armed security for cocaine shipments transported within Honduras, including by members of the Honduran National Police and drug traffickers armed with, among other weapons, machine guns.  

As part of his drug-trafficking activities, HERNANDEZ and his co-conspirators bribed law enforcement officials for sensitive information to protect drug shipments and solicited large bribes from major drug traffickers for HERNANDEZ.   In or about February 2014 in Honduras, HERNANDEZ met with Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, the former leader of a violent Honduran drug-trafficking organization known as the Cachiros, for a meeting arranged by, among others, a former member of the Honduran National Police.  During a video- and audio-recorded portion of that meeting, HERNANDEZ agreed to help Rivera Maradiaga by causing Honduran government entities to pay money owed to one or more Cachiros money-laundering front companies in exchange for kickback payments from Rivera Maradiaga.  Rivera Maradiaga paid HERNANDEZ approximately $50,000 during the meeting." And now El Chapo... Watch this site.

  Elsewhere in the SDNY, in a trial now before the jury, this midway report: When Daniel Hernandez, better known as rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, finished three days of cooperating testimony for the government against his former partners in the Nine Trey Bloods gang, conviction seemed likely for defendants Aljermiah "Nuke" Mack and Anthony "Harv" Elisson.   Harv was caught on video apparently car-jacking Hernandez and his driver Jorge Rivera. Video here.   

But then Harv's lawyer Deveraux Cannick began the question the timing and specifics of the carjacking and kidnapping. It coincided with the release of one of 6ixNine's songs; Cannick asked again and again if the rapper had specified the dozens of punches he now claimed while in proffer sessions with the prosecution.   

Hernandez wants the all important 5K1 cooperation letter. Without it he faces a minimum of 47 years and maximum of life. But what will not only insulting the Bloods but also linking other rappers like Trippie Redd to the gang, things may be difficult in or out of jail.   On the third day of the trial it emerged that audio had been recorded of the begining of Hernandez' direct examination, apparently from inside the courtroom.

Judge Engelmayer prohibited any further entry of phones or other electronics.   The government's initial estimate of a two to three week trial now seemed too long. Prosecutor Michael Longyear told Judge Engelmayer the government might complete its case by Wednesday, September 25.

Inner City Press will continue to cover this and other SDNY and 2nd Circuit cases - watch this site, and there is more on Patreon, here.