What Happened Today
- Devis Rivera Maradiaga, one of the two brothers that led the Cachiro cartel, continued on the stand all day.
Key Information That Surfaced
- Today was the first time that JOH was mentioned as being involved in drug trafficking logistics. Up until today, witnesses had testified about how JOH had received bribes and used his political power to further the drug trafficking conspiracy. But today, Rivera described a meeting between himself and Arnaldo Urbina Soto, a drug trafficker and former mayor of Yoro, where they discussed asking JOH if he would allow Rivera and Urbina to allow them to use a clandestine landing strip that JOH owned in Lempira. According to Rivera, JOH and Tony Hernández had received helicopters and planes carrying cocaine and money on the strip. Also, a “highly trusted man” identified as a military official was in charge of the landing strip.
- Rivera confirmed that he paid bribes to the former Minister of Security, Julian Pacheco Tinoco, through Fabio Lobo
- At one point during his testimony, Rivera made a few remarks that made some of the audience chuckle:
- When asked if he regretted the murders that he committed, Rivera responded: “Not at the time but now I am sorry for everything I did. But I am also sorry for having bribed corrupt politicians in my country – JOH, Pepe Lobo, Tony Hernández, corrupt members of the military like Pacheco, that instead of arresting us because we were a dangerous gang of drug traffickers which they should have cared about, they took bribes from us.”
- When asked if Rivera was worried that JOH thought that Rivera wanted to kill JOH like the Valles did, Rivera said: “he [JOH] was already a Cachiro because he had already accepted bribes from us.”
- Rivera confirmed that the Cachiros and Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez (both part of the same conspiracy as JOH) work with the MS-13 street gang (the mara Salvatrucha). According to Rivera, the MS-13 traffics drugs including receiving airplanes loaded with cocaine in clandestine operations and providing security for loads of cocaine when transported. Armed men from the MS-13 would drive ahead or behind drug shipments to protect them as they passed through certain territories.
- Rivera described that Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez is a good friend of “El Porky”, the head of the MS-13. Ramírez also used MS-13 gang members to guard his drug lab in Cerro Negro in Cortés.
- Rivera mentioned that when he spoke to drug trafficker Neftali Duarte Mejía on the telephone during the birthday party he had described yesterday (day six), Neftali told him that he let JOH use his helicopter for JOH’s Presidential campaign.
- Rivera met with Tony Hernández for the first and only time in 2014. Tony had requested to meet with the Cachiros and asked for $100,000 bribe in order to secure contracts for the Cachiros’ money laundering money, Inrimar. The meeting between Rivera and Tony took place in a Denny’s restaurant in Tegucigalpa and was recorded by a watch that Rivera was wearing. Only still photos extracted from the video were shown in court.
- Rivera confirmed that the Valle Valle brothers did plan on killing JOH. When asked, Rivera said that the Valle Valle brothers wanted to kill JOH for three reasons, 1) the Valle Valles had paid JOH bribes and funded his political campaign, 2) and now JOH and Tony Hernández were not answering their phone calls, and 3) because properties belonging to the Valle Valles were being seized. Rivera confirmed that the Cachiros were not involved in the assassination plot and sent a message to JOH via Reynaldo Ekonomo, a former Congress man and drug trafficker that the Cachiros had no intentions to murder JOH.
- Photos, a video, and transcripts of a meeting that Rivera had with Urbina Soto, a drug trafficker and former mayor of Yoro, were revealed in court today.
- Rivera confirmed that the Sinaloa cartel, specifically ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s cousin received drug shipments in Puerto Cortés, Honduras.
- Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez and Rivera saw each other briefly in a U.S prison. During that encounter, Ramírez told Rivera that he had met with JOH twice in 2020. In both meetings, Ramírez and businessman Fuad Jarufe bribed JOH for continued protection from extradition.
What Will Happen Tomorrow
- Rivera will continue to be cross-examined by the defense
- The prosecution will call more witnesses (estimated to be 7 to 10 more people).
