NEW YORK
The former Chief of Honduran National Police, Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, aka “El Tigre,” was charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S., officials announced this week.
Bonilla is also facing related weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machineguns and destructive devices, officials stated.
“Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, the former chief of the Honduran National Police, allegedly abused his positions in Honduran law enforcement to flout the law and play a key role in a violent international drug trafficking conspiracy,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. “As alleged, on behalf of convicted former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez and his brother the president, Bonilla Valladares oversaw the transshipment of multi-ton loads of cocaine bound for the U.S., used machineguns and other weaponry to accomplish that, and participated in extreme violence, including the murder of a rival trafficker, to further the conspiracy.”
Adding, “now Bonilla Valladares has been marked as an outlaw and charged with crimes that could send him to a U.S. prison for life.”According to the allegations contained in the complaint charging Bonilla Valladares, evidence presented at the October 2019 trial of Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado in the
Southern District of New York, and statements in open court during the prosecution of Hernandez Alvarado:
Between approximately 2003 and 2020, multiple drug trafficking organizations in Honduras and elsewhere worked together.
They had the support from certain prominent public and private individuals, including Honduran politicians and law enforcement officials, to receive multi-ton loads of cocaine sent to Honduras from, among other places, Colombia and Venezuela via air and maritime routes.
Tons of cocaine was being transported to the United States,
For protection from law enforcement interference, members of the National Congress of Honduras, and personnel from the Honduran National Police, including Bonilla Valladares, were involved, according to officials.
Following an October 2019 trial in New York, former Honduran congressman Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado was convicted of drug trafficking, weapons, and false statements charges related to his role in the conspiracy described in the charges against Bonilla Valladares.
Hernandez Alvarado is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, officials stated.
Bonilla Valladares was a member of the Honduran National Police between approximately 1985 and approximately 2016.
In exchange for bribes paid in drug proceeds, Bonilla Valladares directed members of the Honduran National Police, who were armed with machineguns, to let cocaine shipments pass through police checkpoints without being inspected or seized.
Bonilla Valladares, in coordination with Hernandez Alvarado and others, also provided members of their conspiracy with sensitive law enforcement information to facilitate cocaine shipments, including information regarding aerial and maritime interdiction operations, according to officials.
In or about July 2011, Bonilla Valladares participated in the murder of a rival drug trafficker at the request of Hernandez Alvarado and others because the rival trafficker had attempted to prevent Hernandez Alvarado and other members of the conspiracy from transporting cocaine through a region of western Honduras near the border with Guatemala.
Claiming to investigate the murder at the time, Bonilla Valladares reportedly told a member of the media, in substance, that the murder was a well-planned surprise attack that had been carried out efficiently and that the perpetrators had cleaned the murder scene thoroughly.
Bonilla Valladares reportedly added that the perpetrators of the murder had used 40-millimeter grenade launchers, M-16 assault rifles, and Galil assault rifles.
The latter two types of weapons were issued by the Honduran government to some members of the Honduran National Police.
The complaint charges Bonilla Valladares, 60, with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States along with carrying machine guns and other related-crimes.
If convicted of all charges, Bonilla Valladares is facing up to life in prison.
Bonilla Valladares is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.