Honduras hands drug suspect to US amid diplomatic row
The Peninsula
Comayagua, Honduras: Honduras handed an ally of imprisoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez over to the United States on Wednesday to face drug...
Comayagua, Honduras: Honduras handed an ally of imprisoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez over to the United States on Wednesday to face drug trafficking charges, police said.
The move comes amid a diplomatic dispute with Washington that saw President Xiomara Castro, Hernandez's successor, announce the end of an extradition treaty between the two countries.
Mario Jose Calix was handed over to US agents at an airport north of the capital Tegucigalpa and put on an airplane headed for the United States, authorities said.
"The plane is already in the air," police spokesman Edgardo Barahona told AFP.
Calix, 42, was taken to the airport in handcuffs under heavy guard from the police special forces headquarters where he had been held since June.