NEW YORK — The former chief of Honduras’ national police was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiring to protect cocaine shipments destined for the United States.
Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, 64, better known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger,” was a member of the Honduran National Police for decades before becoming its leader for a year in 2012.
He rose to power by facilitating large-scale cocaine trafficking and using violence, including murder, to protect the drug trade, prosecutors said in a presentencing brief, asking that he be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The sentence was announced in federal court in Manhattan by Judge P. Kevin Castel.
In a defense brief, attorney Donald Vogelman requested a 10-year prison sentence, writing that Valladares “was not always involved in illegal activities” and that while he admitted his guilt in a drug conspiracy, “he vehemently denies being involved in any murders.”
“He was occasionally involved in the illegal drug trade. He actually did good work for his country most of the time. He was a very gifted man who led a double life, which was unfortunate,” Vogelman said.
The lawyer said his client was in poor health and would be “a scarred man” if he survives captivity and returns to Honduras.
“He will not return to criminal activities. That chapter in his life is behind him,” the lawyer said.
Prosecutors say Valladares accepted lucrative bribes for providing armed protection as cocaine moved through Honduras. They said he directed other corrupt law enforcement officials to protect those shipments and provided sensitive law enforcement information about upcoming raids to his accomplices.
He was arrested on March 9, 2022, after he was labeled by U.S. prosecutors as an accomplice of former President Juan Orlando Hernández and the president’s brother, Tony Hernández. Prosecutors said ahead of his sentencing that the brothers were Valladares’ “powerful political allies.”
In June, Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a federal court in Manhattan after he was convicted in March on drug charges following a two week trial period that was followed closely in his home country.
Tony Hernández, a former Honduran congressman, was lifetime in 2021 in a US prison in the same courthouse for his own conviction on drug charges.
In a press release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Valladares “committed the very crimes he swore to prevent.”
Anne Milgram, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Valladares abused his position as head of the Honduran national police to “smuggle cocaine into the United States and protect drug traffickers.”
