What Happened Today
- Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, the Cachiro finishes on the stand.
- Andrea Santos (a pseudonym), a former girlfriend of Alexander Mendoza aka ‘El Porky,’ MS-13 leader in Honduras, testifies
- DEA Special Agent Daniel McNamara testifies.
- Fabio Lobo, the son of former President Porfirio Lobo and confessed drug trafficker begins on the stand.
Key Details That Surfaced
- Rivera revealed that he paid bribes to politicians that he had not mentioned previously. He paid Mauricio Villeda approximately $200,000-$250,000 (date unknown) and Carlos Zelaya, the brother of Manuel Zelaya, approximately $100,000-$200,000 (date unknown).
- Rivera also revealed that he began recording conversations and meetings with corrupt politicians, military, police and drug traffickers before he began working with the DEA. He did this on the suggestion of his cousin that had gotten the idea from Ramón Sabillon, the former Minister of Security. Rivera also admitted to giving information to the DEA that led to the arrest of drug traffickers, Carlos “El Negro” Lobo, Juving Alexander Suazo “Chancleta”, Fabio Lobo, Juan Carlos Arvizú “Lanchita”, Ludwig Romero Zelaya and Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez.
- Andrea Santos (a pseudonym) testified that she met El Porky in 2004, was economically dependent on him, lived with him for one year, helped him package crack, and was present during many conversations that Porky had with others. Santos said that the MS-13 purchased drugs from the Valle Valles and Los Cachiros. The MS-13 protected the Valles and Los Cachiros by providing them with people to work with them. The MS-13 bribed the Honduran police to protect the MS-13 drugs at checkpoints and to get MS-13 members out of prison.
- El Porky frequently spoke to Juan Carlos ‘El Tigre’ Bonilla about drugs and weapons. Santos heard them speak on the phone. If someone got arrested, El Porky would call Bonilla and Bonilla would get the person out of jail or help the MS-13 get drugs and weapons. In one instance, Santos overheard a conversation with Bonilla on speaker phone where Porky was asking Bonilla for help with a shipment of drugs. Bonilla assured Porky that there would be no problems with a shipment that was supposed to go through Ceibita. When the drugs got lost, Porky called Bonilla and told him he was going to kill him. Bonilla said he would compensate Porky and later sent a car with guns to El Porky in a house in Santa Monica, San Pedro Sula.
- Santos testified that she could identify audio conversations of Porky speaking to David Campbell, known as the drug supplier to the MS-13 and Anwar, another high-level member of the MS-13. These audios were admitted as evidence. In the audios, El Porky speaks with Campbell and Anwar about Bonilla, JOH, money, and drug trafficking routes.
- Special Agent McNamara mostly provided an overview of the audio conversations between El Porky, Campbell and Anwar; electronic data extracted from various cell phones, laptops and electronic accounts (Instagram, Google, Waze, etc). The following information was used to show the connections between various individuals that are part of the drug trafficking conspiracy and their connections to JOH:
- a) Waze data demonstrating that Fuentes Ramírez visited the Presidential palace in 2019.
- b) Conversations between Fuentes Ramírez and Commissioner Martinez dated February 25, 2020 that share an audio leaked in Honduras (by Perro Amarillo) of El Porky and Campbell talking on wiretaps. Immediately after sharing those audios, Fuentes Ramirez or Martinez sent a voice message commenting (paraphrasing) ‘that the President had assigned an elite police team to kill him (unclear who) because it is inconvenient and the Americans want to take him.’
- c) Various photos of heavy weapons were displayed and found in the telephones of Fuentes Ramírez, Tony Hernández, and on Geovanny Fuentes’ (son) Instagram account.
- d) In a conversation found on the ICloud account between Geo, Fuentes Ramírez’s son and a woman Krizia Murillo, the DEA agent described how both discussed and could identify co-conspirators in JOH’s drug case three or four days after documents were filed on January 8, 2021 (which sparked the conversation they were having). Geo and Murillo were able to identify CC-4 (JOH), CC-13 (Hector Orlando Ponce Fonseca), CC-10 (Julio Barahona), and CC-1 (Melvin Sanders) suggesting that they knew who was which co-conspirator because of their involvement in the conspiracy.
- c) Contact information found on JOH’s google account matches with contact information on Fuentes Ramírez’s cell phone and Ardon’s laptop.
- Fabio Lobo confirmed that JOH’s nickname is ‘JOH’ (which clears up doubts in previous testimonies). Lobo said he had a personal relationship with JOH and that he had paid him a bribe. In return, JOH provided him with political favors and information and support for his drug trafficking activities. Lobo confirmed that the Sinaloa cartel had given JOH contributions to his political campaigns. Lobo started working with the Cachiros in 2010.
- The government displayed a picture with a group of individuals inside the Presidential palace. Fabio Lobo identified himself, his father, Porfirio Lobo, and next to him with his arm around Lobo, was Javier Rivera of the Cachiros cartel.
What Will Happen Tomorrow
- Fabio Lobo will continue testifying and then be cross examined. This may take all day.