Motions expand drug claims against president

NEW YORK» U.S. federal prosecutors have filed motions saying that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country’s armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and shipments to the United States.

The documents quote Hernández as saying hewanted to “‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos’ by flooding the United States with cocaine.”

The motions filed Friday with the U.S. SouthernDistrict of New York do not specifically name the president, referring to him as “CC- 4,” or co-conspirator No. 4, but clearly identify him by naming his brother and his own post as president.