| In Honduras Drug Trial
Cooperator Leo Rivera Tells of Tips From
UN-Trained Commissioner
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 10 – The Honduras
narco-trafficking trial of US
v. Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez
began on the morning of March
9. Inner City Press was
there.
Inner
City Press
live tweeted
the first
opening
argument here.
And then the
first witness,
DEA Agent
Brian
Fairbanks, to
the end of the
day, here.
Geovanny
Fuentes was sitting at the
defense table, with two U.S.
Marshals citing six feet
behind him. The prosecutors
were the table in front,
closest to the judge.
U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge P.
Kevin Castel has been asked
about docuemnts still sealed
in the record, and not yet
provided. On the afternoon of
March 10, more of the first
cooperating witness: Leonel
Rivera. Inner City Press live
tweeted the morning here
and the afternoon below and here:
Leonel Rivera has been brought into the
courtroom by U.S. Marshals. He's wearing a
bright yellow jump suit and mask, which he
takes off once in the witness box.
AUSA: After your meeting in the gas station,
did you have another meeting?
Leo Rivera: Metro asked me if I wanted to
invest in the business that the defendant had
proposed to me. AUSA: Where was this? Leo
Rivera: In San Pedro Sul in a mechanics shop
called Torres
Leo Rivera: We installed traps in the vehicles
we would to transport the cocaine... Metro
told me about the National Police officers who
worked with drug traffickers, he said
"Geovanny's contacts are good."
Leo Rivera: Metro named, as a police official
working with Geovanny, Commissioner Martinez.
[He's the one who was United Nations-trained -
no answer on this today from UN to Inner City
Press' written question, submitted to Antonio
Guterres, Stephane Dujarric and Melissa
Fleming: "On Honduras, given the evidence
being presented about the involving in
narco-trafficking of president Juan Orlando
Hernandez, immediately provide SG Guterres
explanation of the including of JOH in this
past weekend's 14th UN Congress on Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice. Aldo, on the
evidence in the SDNY court on March 9 that
"Commissioner Martinez," involved in the
traffic, was UN trained as a police observer.]
AUSA: When you met with the defendant at
Metro's disco, who was there? Leo Rivera: The
3 of us, and our security. AUSA: Were any of
those men armed? Who? Leo Rivera: All of us.
AUSA: Where was your grenade launcher?
Leo Rivera: My security had it, down by the
cars. AUSA: What did the defendant tell you?
Leo Rivera: He greeted me and showed me a
photo. Of a mechanic that owned me money.
AUSA: What did the defendant say? Leo
Rivera: He asked if I knew the man in the
photo. I said yes. Then he said, Mira primo,
esta senor esta hablando mal del dueno de la
gasolinera
Leo Rivera: Then the defendant told me
that the mechanic was now dead, taken to the
border of Honduras and Guatamala, finally
finished off with two mercy shots to the head.
He showed me a photo: "boca arriba," and
bloody.
AUSA: Had you asked the defendant to do
anything about the mechanic? Leo Rivera: No. I
asked no one to do that. But the defendant
wanted to earn my trust, to work with him on
cocaine.
Leo Rivera: So the defendant told me, if the
cocaine ran into a police road block, he would
just call Commissioner Martinez and get the
check point removed. Plus, he said, Primo, we
carry grenade launchers
AUSA: Who were the heads of the Valles? Leo
Rivera: Luis Valle, and Anulfo Valle.
Judge Castel calls a break. Leo Rivera is led
back to the cell block. His feet are shackled
and he has on black shoes or slippers.
We're back. AUSA: Did you engage in drug
trafficking with Fredy Najera? Leo Rivera:
Yes. At his air strip.
AUSA: How was the cocaine transported?
Leo Rivera: The defendant took it by truck to
the Valles. AUSA: Then what? Leo Rivera: The
Valles would deliver it to the cocaine
trafficker "Jack." The defendant told me it
arrived.
AUSA: And how were you paid? Leo Rivera:
10% of the cocaine. And from that I paid
the defendant and Metro. Judge Castel:
Let's stand up and stretch.
AUSA: What did you learn about the mayor
of Chaloma from the defendant? Leo Rivera: The
mayor of Choloma would given them information
when the drug authorities would come. In
advance. That way the defendant would remove
the weapons from his house. AUSA: What was the
name of the mayor of Chaloma? Leo Rivera: Polo
Chivelli. AUSA: What was his real first name?
Leo Rivera: Leopoldo Chivelli.
Judge Castel: Ladies and gentlemen,
we're going to call it a day. Don't do any
internet research. [Jury leaves]
Fuentes' lawyer: We don't have the subpoena
information about this witness yet. Judge
Castel: My leaning is, it would be a recall
situation.
Judge Castel wishes everyone a good evening
and adjourns.
The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379
(Castel).
***
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