The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, pending extradition to the United States for drug trafficking, was on the radar of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for at least 7 years, a former agent revealed to Noticias Telemundo. of that federal agency, Steve Balog.
During the years 2013 and 2018, Balog worked hand in hand with prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia in the drug trafficking cases of the Valle Valle brothers: Miguel Arnulfo, Luis Alonso, José Reynerio and José Inocente, who managed a criminal structure in the department. Copán, in Honduras, at the service of the Sinaloa Cartel.
From left to right, Ricardo Álvarez Arias, former mayor of Tegucigalpa, an unidentified man, Juan Orlando Hernández and Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle during a match for the Honduran team at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.Noticias Telemundo Investiga
During these investigations, which ended in the capture and extradition of drug trafficker
Noé Montes Bobadilla
, sentenced in 2019 to 37 years in prison in Virginia, Balog obtained information from various sources that assured him that Juan Orlando Hernández received money through his brother,
Tony Hernández
, to let drug trafficking groups operate within Honduras.
"The sources, which we considered very reliable, said that the president's brother received bribes from the cartels in his name, to allow them to operate freely in the country," Balog maintains.
[Honduras arrests former president Juan Orlando Hernández following the extradition order requested by the United States]
The first time Balog heard the name of the president relating him to drug trafficking was in 2014, when an informant
assured him that Juan Orlando Hernández received money from the Valle Valle brothers to "look the other way"
while they moved the shipments to Guatemala and Mexico. of cocaine from Colombia.
Steve Balog getting Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle off the plane on December 18, 2014 in Miami, Fl during his extradition.Noticias Telemundo Investiga
On October 5, 2014, intelligence agents from the Honduran National Police, in coordination with the DEA, captured
Miguel Arnulfo and Luis Alonso Valle Valle
near the Guatemalan border and transferred them to Tegucigalpa.
In that time period, other sources revealed to the DEA that the brothers were trying to stop their extradition by any means possible.
“We heard from sources that the Valle Valles paid Juan Orlando Hernández seven million dollars not to be extradited,” Balog said.
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However, they did not avoid facing American justice.
On December 18 of that year, Miguel Arnulfo and Luis Alonso landed in Miami, Florida, on a DEA plane.
Days later, in an interrogation with prosecutors and anti-drug agents, Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle assured that his relationship with Juan Orlando Hernández dated back to 2010, when they traveled to support the Honduran National Team at the World Cup in South Africa.
That interrogation – in which Balog claims to have been present – took place in the building of the Court of the Southern District of Florida, in downtown Miami and there was talk about
a photo found on Miguel Arnulfo Valle's Blackberry
where he appears hugging Juan Orlando Hernández during a match for the Honduran team at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, according to Balog.
From left to right, Ricardo Álvarez Arias, former mayor of Tegucigalpa, an unidentified man, Juan Orlando Hernández and Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle during a match for the Honduran team at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.Noticias Telemundo Investiga
Noticias Telemundo Investiga had access to said photograph.
The image shows
Juan Orlando Hernández with Miguel Arnulfo Valle
to his left and two more men to his right.
One of these men is
Ricardo Álvarez Arias, former mayor of Tegucigalpa.
An analysis of the elements that appear in it offers some clues as to the place and date where it could have been taken that corroborate Balog's testimony.
The first thing is
the shirts that Hérnández and his companions wear
, the design coincides with that of the Honduras uniform in South Africa 2010.
Hernández's shirt is similar to the away zipper that his team used in the tournament, blue in color and vertical lines, with the Honduran shield in the center and a white bar on the chest, where the name Joma appears, the brand Spanish sportswoman who designed the uniform.
The design of the H in the caps that can be seen in the photo is also the same that Joma devised for the tournament in South Africa, the second time that Honduras participated in a World Cup.
The line of
light on the field
that appears behind the people photographed, which shows the limit between the shadow of the roof of the stadium and the sunlight.
The Honduran national team poses before their match against Chile at the Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, on June 16, 2010. The design of the kit matches that of the shirts worn by Juan Orlando Hernández and Miguel Arnulfo Valle Valle in the Photograph obtained by Noticias Telemundo Investiga. Bernat Armangue / ASSOCIATED PRESS
In South Africa, Honduras played only three games.
Two of them, against Spain and Switzerland, were played on June 21 and 25, 2010 at 8:30 pm local time, in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein, respectively.
According to suncalc.org, an application that allows you to determine the phases of sunlight on an interactive map, on those days the sun set shortly before 7:30 pm in both cities, that is, one hour before the start of the encounters.
The game against Chile, on June 16, when both teams made their debut, was played at 1:30 pm, local time, in the city of Nelspruit.
According to suncalc.org, at that time, the sun was lighting the court from the northwest, which coincides with the line of light in the photo.
General view of the pitch during the match between Honduras and Chile at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, in the World Cup in South Africa.
June 16, 2010, Mike Hewitt - FIFA / FIFA via Getty Images
In addition, by looking at the images of the match and comparing the distance of the shadow line during the match, which was already almost in the middle of the field, with the one seen in the photograph, closer to the side line, it can be deduced that Hernández and his companions were photographed before the match began.
Other photographs of that day, distributed by the Getty agency, allow us to appreciate the line of light on the field, as well as a small glass case located on the west side, near the stands, which also appears in the image of Juan Orlando Hernández.
Right in that sector was a large group of Honduran fans with their blue shirts, according to the photographs of the agencies.
Thus, the visual clues allow us to determine that the photo of Hernández and Miguel Arnulfo Valle was probably taken
at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, on June 16, 2010, on the occasion of the match between the Honduran and Chilean national teams
.
The image was captured in the west stands of the stadium, behind where the Honduran team's bench was located.
Honduras lost to the Chilean team by 0 - 1.
7,000 kilos of cocaine
According to the former DEA agent, during his interrogation Miguel Arnulfo assured that Juan Orlando Hernández was present at a meeting where some Honduran drug traffickers were coordinating the reception of 7,000 kilos of cocaine from Colombia in semi-submersibles.
At that time, Hernández was the president of the National Congress of Honduras and was emerging as the future president of the country for the National Party, replacing Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
Steve Balog took the notes of that interrogation in his own handwriting and those notes later served as part of the investigation of the criminal cases of Juan Antonio 'Tony' Hernández Alvarado, brother of the former president, sentenced to life in prison in the Southern District Court from New York in 2021, and Arnulfo Fagot Máximo, alias 'El Tío', another Honduran drug trafficker sentenced in 2019 to 33 years in prison in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Handwritten notes of former DEA agent Steve Balog that served as part of the investigation into Tony Hernández, brother of the former president of Honduras.Noticias Telemundo Investiga
Narcos betrayed
Former DEA agent Steve Balog claims to have attended a meeting that Juan Orlando Hernández, taking advantage of an official visit to Washington DC in 2015, had with senior Justice Department officials at DEA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
In that meeting, Balog assures that the former Honduran president asked US officials that the extradited Honduran drug lords be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
In the following years, several drug traffickers fell, along with the police and politicians who supported them.
Some of them, who allegedly paid the government for protection, felt betrayed, says Balog.
[USA. added former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to his list of corrupt leaders]
Miguel Arnulfo and Luis Alonso Valle Valle were sentenced in October 2016 to 25 years in prison in the Eastern Court of Virginia.
“We received information that the Valle Valle, the Montes, the Cachiros, and possibly other organizations, raised money to hire some Mexicans to go to Honduras.
The plan was to use 50-caliber weapons to shoot down the president's helicopter while it was in the air," Balog said.
Steve Balog in the extradition of Jose Inocente Valle Valle.
June 19, 2015. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.Noticias Telemundo Investigates
The plan was never executed, the 50-caliber bullets never touched Hernández, but what did begin to hurt his image were the confessions of several Honduran drug traffickers who began to speak in United States courts about their relationship with the brothers Juan Antonio and Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado.
Victor Hugo Díaz Morales, alias 'El Rojo', agreed to have financially supported the Honduran National Party in several elections and to pay the Hernández government for protection.
This was testified during their trials by Héctor Emilio Fernández Rosa, alias 'Don H', and Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, all sentenced to long sentences for drug trafficking in the US.
During his last years in office, Juan Orlando Hernández repeated to the media that
the accusations of these drug traffickers were nothing more than retaliation for having extradited them
to the United States.
During the trial of his brother Juan Antonio, at the beginning of 2021 in the South Court of New York, the former president assured that it was a "very painful moment for his family", but that he was not involved in those crimes.
Steve Balog at the airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, during the extradition of Jose Inocente Valle Valle and his wife Marlen Griselda Amaya.
June 19, 2015Noticias Telemundo Investigates
Noticias Telemundo Investiga contacted the defense of the former president but they declined to make any statements.
In addition to the testimonies of convicted drug traffickers, it is still unclear what evidence US prosecutors have against Juan Orlando Hernández.
Based on his experience in his years in the DEA and the evidence described, Steve Balog maintains that the
United States government has enough elements to convict him.
“The Honduran people elected him and trusted him to manage the country in an appropriate way, but instead he filled his pockets with money from drug trafficking, and thought that because of his position he was above the law, but nobody is above the law, ”says the former agent.
For the extradition of Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States to materialize, the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice must respond to an injunction filed by his defense alleging that his fundamental rights were violated during his detention on February 14.
