A witness in the trial accused unnamed members of the Israeli embassy in Colombia of participating in a cocaine ring.
New York City, United States – The allegations shocked the courtroom. Last week, a confidential witness in a high-profile criminal case alleged that an Israeli embassy participated in a money-laundering scheme linked to the illicit trade of cocaine.
It was a major twist in the trial of Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former Honduran president now facing charges of participating in a “violent drug-trafficking conspiracy” while in office.
On the witness stand sat a convicted drug trafficker, going by the pseudonym Luis Perez. Originally from Colombia, Perez appeared in a United States district court in New York to testify against Hernandez, whom he accused of being involved in drug trafficking operations.
But as the defence team cross-examined Perez about his relationship with Hernandez, he revealed another alleged participant in the scheme: the Israeli embassy in Colombia.
“We worked with officials at the Israeli embassy,” Perez told defence lawyer Raymond Colon in Spanish while on the stand. “The woman who transported money for us from Honduras to Colombia was an official in the Israeli embassy.”
Perez, who was affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel, accused the unnamed official of laundering between $100m and $150m between 2008 and 2010.
Israeli embassy officials in Colombia declined to comment for media’s story. And Perez’s allegations could not be independently verified.
But experts told media the testimony raised wider questions about Israel’s involvement in Latin America — and how government and drug smuggling in the region have intertwined.
But in 2015, Perez turned himself in to US authorities, in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. Though it was not clear why he turned himself in to US authorities, he said that he left because “the US and Honduran authorities started surveilling people closest to us.”
He served 65 months for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, down from a possible sentence of 135 months — more than 11 years.
He has since acted as a cooperating witness for US prosecutors, who shield his identity for his safety. He previously testified in the 2022 trial against former Honduran congress member Fredy Najera, who was accused of “operating a large-scale narcotics trafficking organisation”.
Nájera has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Perez was introduced as “Alexander Monroy-Murillo” at the time of the trial, a Sinaloa strongman operating in Honduras.
In both the cases of Najera and former President Hernandez, Perez accused Honduran officials of seeking campaign contributions in exchange for their participation in the drug smuggling.
Government officials on trial
Najera, for instance, was said to have used his government office to tip off Perez whenever a police operation threatened his cocaine business.
As for Hernandez — a conservative president popularly known by his initials JOH — US prosecutors say he transformed Honduras into a “narco-state”, partnering with “some of the world’s most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire”.
When asked if he took bribes from figures like El Chapo, Hernandez replied simply: “Never.” The prosecution has since rested its case.
In his testimony during the Hernández trial, Perez made it clear that the former president had nothing to do with the Israeli diplomatic official who allegedly transported drug money.
Instead, he described the unnamed employee as using her luggage to move the money from Honduras to Colombia, on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel.
“To launder the money, we moved it in a diplomatic briefcase using the diplomatic passport of an official working at the Embassy of Israel in Colombia,” Perez told the jury.
This happened over multiple shipments, Perez alleged. Colon, the defence lawyer, pressed him to specify how many times the trips happened.
“I can’t give an exact number,” Perez replied. “But it happened many times.”
In exchange for participating in the money-laundering scheme, Perez said the official received “3 percent of the money they moved”.
The defence has sought to portray witnesses like Perez as unreliable, motivated to testify for reduced sentences in their own criminal cases.
One of the defence lawyers, Renato Stabile, told the jury in his opening statement, “You’re going to hear from a lot of devils.”
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