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New York Metropolis, United States – The allegations shocked the courtroom. Final week, a confidential witness in a high-profile felony case alleged that an Israeli embassy took half in a money-laundering scheme linked to cocaine trafficking.
It was a significant turning level within the trial of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who now faces prices of collaborating in a “violent drug trafficking conspiracy” whereas in workplace.
Sitting on the witness stand was a convicted drug smuggler, going by the pseudonym Luis Perez. Pérez, initially from Colombia, appeared in a United States district courtroom in New York to testify in opposition to Hernández, whom he accused of being concerned in a drug trafficking operation.
However when the protection group cross-examined Perez about her ties to Hernandez, she revealed one other alleged accomplice within the scheme: the Israeli embassy in Colombia.
“We labored with Israeli embassy officers,” Perez instructed protection lawyer Raymond Colon in Spanish whereas on the stand. “The lady who delivered the cash from Honduras to Colombia for us was an official on the Israeli embassy.”
Pérez, who was affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel, accused the unnamed official of laundering between $100 million and $150 million between 2008 and 2010.
Israeli embassy officers in Colombia declined to touch upon the Al Jazeera story. And Perez's allegations couldn’t be independently confirmed.
However consultants instructed Al Jazeera that the testimony raised broader questions on Israel's involvement in Latin America – and the way the federal government and drug trafficking within the area are intertwined.
Authorities officers are on trial
Pérez, by his personal admission, smuggled 200,000 kilograms (441,000 lb) of cocaine from Colombia to northwest Honduras over a interval of seven years, beginning in 2008.
His patrons reportedly included Mexican drug lords akin to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, each leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.
However in 2015, Pérez turned himself in to US authorities in alternate for a lowered jail sentence. Though it’s unclear why he turned himself in to US authorities, he stated he left as a result of “US and Honduran authorities started monitoring the individuals closest to us.”
He was sentenced to 65 months for conspiring to import cocaine into america, which is greater than 11 years lower than the potential sentence of 135 months.
He has since served as a cooperating witness for US prosecutors, who shield his identification for his security. He beforehand testified within the 2022 trial in opposition to former Honduran congressman Freddy Nájera, who was accused of “working a large-scale drug trafficking group.”
Najera has since pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. On the time of the trial, Pérez was launched as “Alexander Monroe-Murillo”, a Sinaloa strongman energetic in Honduras.
In each the instances of Nájera and former President Hernández, Pérez accused Honduran officers of soliciting marketing campaign contributions in alternate for his or her involvement in drug trafficking.
For instance, Nájera is alleged to have used his authorities workplace to tip off Pérez at any time when a police operation threatened his cocaine enterprise.
As for Hernandez — a conservative president popularly recognized by his initials JOH — U.S. prosecutors say he turned Honduras right into a “narco-state,” “making a corrupt and ruthless violent empire.” Partnered with a few of the world's most prolific drug traffickers”.
He was extradited to the US in 2022, shortly after finishing his second time period in workplace.
Nonetheless, Hernandez has pleaded not responsible to the drug trafficking and weapons prices in opposition to him. Earlier this week, he additionally appeared as a witness denying any allegations of wrongdoing.
When Hernandez was requested if he had ever taken bribes from figures like El Chapo, he replied merely: “By no means.” The prosecution has since rested its case.
by means of diplomatic channels
In his testimony in the course of the Hernandez trial, Pérez made it clear that the previous president had nothing to do with the Israeli diplomatic officer who allegedly transported the drug cash.
As an alternative, he described the unnamed worker as utilizing his baggage to maneuver cash from Honduras to Colombia on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel.
“To launder the cash, we moved it in a diplomatic briefcase utilizing the diplomatic passport of an official who labored at Israel's embassy in Colombia,” Perez instructed the jury.
Perez alleged that this occurred in a number of shipments. Protection lawyer Colon pressed him to disclose how usually the journeys came about.
Perez replied, “I can't give the precise quantity.” “Nevertheless it occurred a number of instances.”
Perez stated the officer acquired “3 % of the cash he transferred” in alternate for collaborating within the money-laundering scheme.
The protection has tried to painting witnesses like Perez as unreliable, motivated to testify in alternate for lowered sentences in their very own felony instances.
“You're going to listen to quite a lot of devilry,” Renato Stabile, one of many protection attorneys, instructed the jury in his opening assertion.
Help to cocaine associated teams
These allegations, though unproven, had been no shock to Alexander Avina, a historian of Mexico and Latin America and professor at Arizona State College.
Avina has researched alleged Israeli connections to drug networks in Central America, and he factors to a protracted historical past of overseas interference in Honduras.
“Honduras has had shut ties with the Israeli army and arms sellers since no less than the late Nineteen Seventies,” Avina instructed Al Jazeera.
On the time, Honduras was in turmoil. Tensions had been rising with neighboring El Salvador, and a sequence of army leaders seized the presidency of Honduras by means of a coup, though corruption scandals finally toppled lots of them.
For instance, the presidency of Common Juan Alberto Melgar Castro ended within the “cocaine coup” of 1978, when his authorities was accused of collaborating in drug trafficking.
Amid the uproar, Avina reported that Israeli army trainers and advisers helped Honduran safety forces wage a bloody marketing campaign in opposition to leftists and dissidents.
Avina additionally reported that the Israeli authorities additionally offered weapons, advisors, and logistical help to the army regime in neighboring Guatemala.
Beginning within the Sixties, Guatemala was embroiled in a decades-long civil conflict that led to genocide of the natives. The United Nations estimates that greater than 200,000 individuals died.
Dealing with strain over human rights abuses in Central America, the US authorities cooperated with Israel to provide its allies within the area, although it couldn’t accomplish that instantly.
A 1983 New York Occasions report described how Israel, “on the request of america”, was delivery weapons to Central American international locations by means of Honduras.
Avina additionally stated Israel additionally has a historical past in Colombia of coaching members of the United Self-Defenders of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary pressure linked to cocaine trafficking.
“Israel has carried out a loss of life squad reprisal all through america for the reason that Nineteen Seventies,” Avina stated.
“Medication are a part of that counterterrorism operation, as a result of authorities forces have traditionally relied on narcotics to do their soiled work.”
Shut ties below Hernandez
In current many years, Israel and the US have maintained shut relations in Central America, together with below President Hernández.
The previous president was a key ally of the US within the regional “conflict on medication”, and has private ties to Israel: he studied there within the Nineteen Nineties as a part of a global growth program known as MASHAV.
The Israeli authorities promoted him as “the primary MASHAV graduate to change into head of state”.
Hernández continued his heat relations with Israel whereas in workplace. Below his presidency, Honduras turned one of many first Latin American international locations to maneuver its embassy to Jerusalem, a controversial transfer seen as negating Palestinian claims to town.
As allegations started to floor about his ties to drug trafficking gangs, Israeli media reported that Hernandez additionally requested Israel to assist stop his extradition to the US.
Journalist Cristian Sanchez is attending Hernandez's trial on behalf of the Professional-Honduras Community, a civil society group targeted on exposing corruption. He was additionally shocked by the allegations leveled in opposition to the Israeli officer within the courtroom proceedings.
“It was spectacular to the general public within the viewers to listen to {that a} man within the Israeli Embassy would lend himself to being a part of the Sinaloa Cartel's money-laundering scheme,” Sanchez stated.
In his view, the allegations are a part of a broader pattern of complicity of state establishments within the drug commerce.
“Testimony exhibits that the extent of infiltration of drug traffickers has reached its highest stage ever, together with a former president convicted of narco-trafficking – and an Israeli authorities diplomat in Colombia. “