The United States has slapped drugs and firearms charges on a member of congress in Honduras, accusing him yesterday of accepting more than USD 1 million in kickbacks to help fund his political career.
Midence Oqueli Martinez Turcios, 57, and three other Hondurans, including a former mayor have been hit with indictments in a New York federal court and the United States is seeking their extradition, prosecutors said.
Oqueli Martinez Turcios is charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and two counts of weapons offenses.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if put on trial and convicted of the most serious charge against him.
According to US officials, he received more than USD 1 million in bribes and other payments from his country's Cachiros cartel from 2004-2014, and personally escorted some cocaine shipments through Honduras.
The latest charges come seven months after US prosecutors slapped cocaine and firearms charges against fellow Honduran congressman, Fredy Renan Najera Montoya.
In December 2017, a US federal judge sentenced Yani Rosenthal, a two-times former presidential candidate and an ex-congressman from Honduras, to three years in prison for laundering drug proceeds from the Cachiros cartel.
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