Honduras extradited to the United States this Thursday a former trusted official of the convicted former president Juan Orlando Hernández, accused of money laundering with bribes and public funds for security tasks, a police chief reported.
The former director of the Administration Committee of the Population Protection and Security Fund (TASA), Francisco Cosenza, is accused in the United States of “conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and transactions derived from criminal acts.”
The former official, 65 years old, was transferred under heavy guard from the headquarters of the Special Forces in Tegucigalpa, where he had been detained since January 8, to the Palmerola airport, about 50 km north of the capital, to be embarked on a plane to Florida (southeastern United States).
In Palmerola, Cosenza was received “by authorities from the United States” who will take him into custody in that country to be placed at the disposal of the Court of the Southern District of Florida, the police reported.
According to the accusation, between 2015 and 2019, the then director of the TASA received million-dollar bribes to assign contracts for the purchase of uniforms and other goods for the National Police, managed in United States bank accounts. Honduran newspapers claim that he received about 10 million dollars.
The security tax was a tax created under the Hernández government (2014-2022), who stated that it would serve to obtain resources to combat crime. These funds were spent in complete secrecy.
Cosenza joined the list of 41 Hondurans extradited to the United States since 2014, but he is the first for money laundering; The others faced charges for links to drug trafficking, including former President Hernández.
On March 8, Hernández was found guilty of “conspiring” to send more than 500 tons of cocaine to the United States between 2004 and 2022 by a federal jury at the close of a historic trial in New York.
On June 26, the judge must hand down Hernández’s sentence, which could be life imprisonment.
#Honduras #extradites #official #accused #money #laundering #Diario #Página