Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was found guilty on Friday of drug trafficking conspiracy by a U.S. jury, cementing the onetime U.S. ally’s fall from grace.

Jurors in federal court in Manhattan needed about two days to reach a verdict, following a two-week trial. Hernández, 55, faces the possibility of life in prison. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel will determine his sentence at a later date.

Hernández led Honduras from 2014 to 2022.

During his presidency, the Central American country received more than US$50 million in U.S. anti-narcotics assistance, and tens of millions of dollars in security and military aid.

But the Justice Department said he abused his power by accepting millions of dollars in bribes from traffickers to protect their U.S.-bound cocaine shipments, and to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.

Hernández was convicted on three charges: using machine guns to further a cocaine importation conspiracy, conspiring to use machine guns to further that conspiracy, and conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

“Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity, and the people of Honduras and the United States were forced to suffer the consequences,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement after the verdict.

Lawyers for Hernández did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hernández and “El Chapo” Guzmán

Hernández was arrested and extradited to the United States in April 2022, three months after he left office. He had pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and criminal weapons possession charges. At the trial, several convicted traffickers testified they had bribed Hernández.

Prosecutors said Hernández used drug cash to bribe officials to manipulate voting results in his favor during Honduras’ 2013 and 2017 presidential elections.

The former leader’s lawyers contended that prosecutors were relying on testimony from criminals who were trying to reduce their own sentences, and get even for his crackdown on cartels. Testifying in his own defense on Tuesday, Hernández denied meeting with or taking bribes from the traffickers, including convicted Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

“I had a policy against all those people because I could not stand them,” Hernández said of drug traffickers. “They did a lot of damage in the country.”

Hernández has been jailed at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his extradition.

-Reuters