Federal authorities in New York have filed charges against a Honduran congressman accused of being a member of a violent drug trafficking organization responsible for shipping loads of cocaine into the United States.
Prosecutors say Midence Oqueli Martinez Turcios helped the Cachiros drug gang import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela and Colombia.
The shipments were then transported within Honduras to Guatemala where they were eventually exported to the U.S., often in coordination with Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.
Turcios is a legislator in the National Congress of Honduras.
The charges, announced Tuesday, include conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and related weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machine-guns and destructive devices.
Prosecutors are seeking Martinez Turcios' extradition from Honduras. Information on his lawyer wasn't immediately available.
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