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New York (AFP)

US prosecutors said Monday they have charged Juan Antonio Hernandez, the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, weapons offenses and making false statements.

The former Honduran congressman, who also goes by the name Tony, was arrested in Miami on Friday, the day after the US public holiday of Thanksgiving, and appeared in Miami federal court Monday.

US prosecutors said Hernandez was a large-scale drug trafficker who worked from 2004 to 2016 with other drug traffickers in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico, to import cocaine into the United States.

In Manhattan, where the charges were unveiled, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman accused the 40-year-old of being "involved in all stages" of trafficking tons of cocaine through Honduras destined for the United States.

"Hernandez allegedly arranged machinegun-toting security for cocaine shipments, bribed law enforcement officials... to protect drug shipments and solicited large bribes from major drug traffickers," said Berman.

The charges run to four counts. If convicted, he faces anything from five years to life in prison.

Hernandez allegedly had access to cocaine laboratories in Honduras and Colombia, where some of the cocaine was stamped "TH" for his initials.

He is accused of meeting Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, the former leader of the country's Cachiros cartel, agreeing to help facilitate Honduran government payments to cartel front companies and pocketing $50,000.

US prosecutors have aggressively pursued current or former Honduran public officials and their relatives over drug trafficking.

In July, the United States charged in absentia another member of congress in Honduras, Midence Oqueli Martinez Turcios, with accepting more than $1 million in kickbacks to help fund his political career.

In 2017, Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, was sentenced to 24 years in a US prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine.

That same year, a US judge sentenced Yani Rosenthal, a two-time former presidential candidate and an ex-congressman from Honduras, to three years in prison for laundering drug proceeds from the Cachiros cartel.

© 2018 AFP