Manhattan federal court sentenced former Honduran National Police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, known as “El Tigre,” to 19 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to cocaine shipments to the United States.

The court proceedings, overseen by Judge P. Kevin Castel, revealed Bonilla Valladares’s extensive involvement in drug trafficking during his tenure, which included violent measures to protect the drug trade.

Prosecutors argued for a 30-year sentence, highlighting the severity of his crimes.

They stated, “He rose to power by enabling cocaine trafficking on a massive scale,” emphasizing the destructive impact of his actions on both Honduras and the United States.

In a bid for leniency, Bonilla Valladares’s attorney, Donald Vogelman, requested a 10-year sentence, asserting that his client had not always engaged in illegal activities and that Bonilla who was now 64 years is not of very good health.

Vogelman described Bonilla Valladares as a “gifted man who lived a dual life,” and insisted, “He will not go back to criminal activities. That chapter in his life is behind him.”

Retired police commissioner Henry Osorio Canales remarked, “We had a government that was in criminal hands, which steered the destiny of the people, and El Tigre was its armed branch,” highlighting the systemic issues that have long plagued the country.

Bonilla Valladares’s son expressed his father’s belief in his innocence, stating, “He told us it was all a political persecution.”

The former police chief now prepares to appeal his sentence.