(Bloomberg) -- The former president of Honduras pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking and weapons charges.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was a head of state from 2014 until January, appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to enter his plea. Dressed in black prison fatigues and guarded by federal marshals, he placed his right hand over his heart in a sign of recognition of supporters in the courtroom.

“Not guilty,” he said to the court in Spanish.

Hernandez, 53, was extradited to New York last month to face charges that he helped facilitate the smuggling of hundreds of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the U.S. According to U.S. prosecutors, Hernandez received millions of dollars to use his office and his nation’s law enforcement and military to support drug traffickers in Honduras, Mexico and elsewhere. 

Those allegedly included his brother Juan Antonio Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, who was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison last year after being found guilty of participating in the importation of at least 185,000 kilograms (407,860 pounds) of cocaine. Juan Orlando Hernandez is also accused of taking money from convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel.

Hernandez used drug money to fund his political rise, according to prosecutors. In 2005, as a congressman running for re-election, he allegedly accepted $40,000 in dirty money from Victor Hugo Diaz Morales, or “El Rojo,” the former leader of a drug organization based in Honduras and Guatemala. The bribe was paid through Hernandez’s brother, prosecutors say.

Along with drug-trafficking conspiracy charges, Hernandez is facing a number of counts relating to the possession and use of machine guns and other destructive devices. If convicted of conspiring to use and carry machine guns in furtherance of a cocaine importation scheme, he faces as long as life in prison, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said. 

The case is U.S. v. Diaz Morales, 15-cr-379, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). 

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