In Honduras Drug Trial Cooperator Leo Rivera Tells of Tips From UN-Trained Commissioner Martinez
Meanwhile the UN refuses Press questions on why it trained Martinez - and, last weekend, invited JOH to speak at a UN "anti-crime" event
By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 10 – The Honduras narco-trafficking trial of US v. Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez began on the morning of March 9. Inner City Press was there.
Inner City Press live tweeted the first opening argument here. And then the first witness, DEA Agent Brian Fairbanks, to the end of the day, here.
Geovanny Fuentes was sitting at the defense table, with two U.S. Marshals citing six feet behind him. The prosecutors were the table in front, closest to the judge.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel has been asked about docuemnts still sealed in the record, and not yet provided. On the afternoon of March 10, more of the first cooperating witness: Leonel Rivera. Inner City Press live tweeted the morning here and the afternoon below and here:
Leonel Rivera has been brought into the courtroom by U.S. Marshals. He's wearing a bright yellow jump suit and mask, which he takes off once in the witness box.
AUSA: After your meeting in the gas station, did you have another meeting?
Leo Rivera: Metro asked me if I wanted to invest in the business that the defendant had proposed to me. AUSA: Where was this? Leo Rivera: In San Pedro Sul in a mechanics shop called Torres
Leo Rivera: We installed traps in the vehicles we would to transport the cocaine... Metro told me about the National Police officers who worked with drug traffickers, he said "Geovanny's contacts are good."
Leo Rivera: Metro named, as a police official working with Geovanny, Commissioner Martinez. [He's the one who was United Nations-trained - no answer on this today from UN to Inner City Press' written question, submitted to Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming: "On Honduras, given the evidence being presented about the involving in narco-trafficking of president Juan Orlando Hernandez, immediately provide SG Guterres explanation of the including of JOH in this past weekend's 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Aldo, on the evidence in the SDNY court on March 9 that "Commissioner Martinez," involved in the traffic, was UN trained as a police observer.]
AUSA: When you met with the defendant at Metro's disco, who was there? Leo Rivera: The 3 of us, and our security. AUSA: Were any of those men armed? Who? Leo Rivera: All of us.
AUSA: Where was your grenade launcher? Leo Rivera: My security had it, down by the cars. AUSA: What did the defendant tell you? Leo Rivera: He greeted me and showed me a photo. Of a mechanic that owned me money.
AUSA: What did the defendant say? Leo Rivera: He asked if I knew the man in the photo. I said yes. Then he said, Mira primo, esta senor esta hablando mal del dueno de la gasolinera
Leo Rivera: Then the defendant told me that the mechanic was now dead, taken to the border of Honduras and Guatamala, finally finished off with two mercy shots to the head. He showed me a photo: "boca arriba," and bloody.
AUSA: Had you asked the defendant to do anything about the mechanic? Leo Rivera: No. I asked no one to do that. But the defendant wanted to earn my trust, to work with him on cocaine.
Leo Rivera: So the defendant told me, if the cocaine ran into a police road block, he would just call Commissioner Martinez and get the check point removed. Plus, he said, Primo, we carry grenade launchers
AUSA: Who were the heads of the Valles? Leo Rivera: Luis Valle, and Anulfo Valle. Judge Castel calls a break. Leo Rivera is led back to the cell block. His feet are shackled and he has on black shoes or slippers.
We're back. AUSA: Did you engage in drug trafficking with Fredy Najera? Leo Rivera: Yes. At his air strip.
AUSA: How was the cocaine transported? Leo Rivera: The defendant took it by truck to the Valles. AUSA: Then what? Leo Rivera: The Valles would deliver it to the cocaine trafficker "Jack." The defendant told me it arrived.
AUSA: And how were you paid? Leo Rivera: 10% of the cocaine. And from that I paid the defendant and Metro. Judge Castel: Let's stand up and stretch.
AUSA: What did you learn about the mayor of Chaloma from the defendant? Leo Rivera: The mayor of Choloma would given them information when the drug authorities would come. In advance. That way the defendant would remove the weapons from his house. AUSA: What was the name of the mayor of Chaloma? Leo Rivera: Polo Chivelli. AUSA: What was his real first name? Leo Rivera: Leopoldo Chivelli.
Judge Castel: Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to call it a day. Don't do any internet research. [Jury leaves]
Fuentes' lawyer: We don't have the subpoena information about this witness yet. Judge Castel: My leaning is, it would be a recall situation.
Judge Castel wishes everyone a good evening and adjourns.
The case is US v. Diaz, 15-cr-379 (Castel).
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