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Sergio Neptalí Mejía Duarte, extradited from Honduras and sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States, operated a vast drug trafficking network.
Sergio Neptalí Mejía Duarte , extradited to the United States from Honduras and sentenced to life in prison on January 9, 2018 , is profiled as one of the most violent and powerful drug traffickers in the country.
During his trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida presented compelling evidence that included testimony from six co-conspirators, two law enforcement officers and an expert witness.
The evidence revealed that Mejía Duarte participated in a vast international narcotics trafficking conspiracy , spanning from his 2004 meeting with Warner Benítez-López in Venezuela until his indictment in 2014.
The testimonies made it clear that Mejía Duarte was not only a trafficker, but the leader of a large-scale cocaine transport organization.
He was in charge of receiving and moving shipments of hundreds of kilograms of drugs from Colombia and Panama to their final destination in the United States, passing through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.
According to authorities, at least 20,000 kilograms of cocaine passed through his hands.
But the operation was not limited to drug trafficking. Mejía Duarte was known for his violence.
Several witnesses detailed that the drug trafficker not only employed multiple bodyguards, but also possessed an arsenal of weapons, including a pistol with rifle bullets and an automatic rifle, both of which were found in his residence during his arrest in Honduras.
“A Glock pistol was inside a safe and, upon learning that the police were about to open the safe, Mejia said he would give us the combination,” the officer said at trial.
Threats
One of the most disturbing moments of the trial occurred when details of threats that Mejía Duarte directed at key witnesses were revealed .
One of them is Benítez-López , who recounted how the accused threatened him in prison, claiming that he knew the whereabouts of his family.
Another incident involved an intimidating email that Mejía Duarte sent the day before his trial, in which he warned an inmate not to testify against him, under threat of violent retaliation.
Sergio Neptalí Mejía Duarte’s empire, which operated across multiple countries, was marked by his ability to combine drug trafficking with the use of brute force.
Now, after his conviction, he joins the list of Hondurans extradited to the United States for drug trafficking, being the sixteenth to face American justice and one of the four sentenced to life imprisonment.
