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Former Honduran Presidential Candidate Admits Laundering Drug Profits

By Dan Bethencourt

A prominent Honduran politician pleaded guilty in a New York federal court Wednesday to participating in a trade-based scheme to help a Central American drug cartel launder their profits through livestock, some of which was then sold as meat in the United States. Yani Benjamin Rosenthal Hidalgo, a former lawmaker who ran for president of Honduras in the 2009 and 2013 elections, had already surrendered to U.S. authorities in October 2015 before admitting to engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from drug-trafficking offenses. Prosecutors said the scheme, which lasted from about 2004 until 2015, involved several of Rosenthal's relatives...

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