Honduran cartel figure testifies he bribed presidents

[Judi Lynn]

Claudia Torrens, Associated Press
Updated 6:42 pm CDT, Friday, October 11, 2019



Photo: Elmer Martinez, AP
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FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2019 file photo, former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo speaks to the press outside court where his wife, former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo, was convicted on corruption charges in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. A former drug boss Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga testified in court on Friday, Oct. 11, that he had paid a bit more than half a million dollars to Lobo in exchange for protection from being extradited to the United States.

NEW YORK (AP) — The former boss of Honduras' Los Cachiros cartel testified Friday that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to the current and former presidents of Honduras in exchange for protection from extradition to the United States and other favors.

Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga said in a Manhattan court that he gave then-President Porfirio Lobo between $500,000 and $600,000 in 2009 and alleged that Lobo helped him launder the proceeds from drug trafficking.

Rivera Maradiaga also said he paid a $250,000 bribe to current President Juan Orlando Hernández, without specifying the date. He said he bribed many Honduran politicians, including the current minister of security.

Lobo has denied wrongdoing, saying last week that he did not receive illicit money from anyone and calling accusations against him "falsehoods from criminals who are trying to reduce their sentence in the USA."

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Honduran-cartel-figure-testifies-he-bribed-14515341.php#photo-18420847



Like Judge Valkenheiser, always was a good looking guy.