By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.

The War on Drugs never is what it seems. Politicians use it whenever it suits their narrative to advance their careers, law enforcement eagerly uses it when it needs to up its budget. Meanwhile, the drugs never stop flowing. The latest twist in this story is the pardon of convicted drug trafficker and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. As if his release wasn’t enough of an injustice, a recent report indicates President Donald Trump’s regime also gave him a room at the famed five-star Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City.

ProPublica reports that, “on the day he was to be released, records show, Hernández had an immigration detainer — a request for law enforcement agencies to hold noncitizens for pickup by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — in place.”

So far, so good. This is normal. As ProPublica reports:  “Other noncitizens caught up in recent immigration sweeps — the vast majority of whom do not have criminal records — have faced swift efforts to deport them, even to countries where they may face threats.”

One would think that the same would happen to Hernández, who was tried and convicted in the U.S. in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and allowing cartel traffickers to export over 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S.

You’d be wrong. In Hernández’s case, the Federal Bureau of Prisons “scrambled to get his detainer removed so he could walk free.”

After already getting a pardon, Trump wasn’t done showering the convicted cartel kingpin with gifts. Upon his release Hernández did not just walk out of the prison. “Despite persistent budget and staffing shortages, prison officials paid a specialized tactical team overtime to drive Hernández from a high-security facility in West Virginia to the famed five-star Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City, according to records and three people familiar with the situation,” ProPublica reports.

“Before he left, Hernández was allowed to use the captain’s government phone to talk to the federal prison system’s deputy director, Joshua Smith, who was convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy before Trump pardoned him in 2021.”

One would say “unbelievable,” but in recent months it is clear anything is possible. No matter how horrific.

“The [prisons bureau] administration rolled out the red carpet for him,” Joe Rojas, a retired prison worker and former union leader who has been speaking to the media on behalf of staff who fear reprisals for doing so since bureau leaders stopped recognizing the union last year, told ProPublica. “The staff are disgusted.” 

As are many others.

All the while, MAGA leader Donald Trump continues ordering military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have left over 140 people dead. Such a strike is considered a war crime.

Even if we entertain the logic behind deploying such actions and compare it to an actual law enforcement tactic against drug traffickers, it would be like sending in SEAL Team Six to take down a teenager selling a small amount of weed at his high school. It’s a massive waste of resources and has little meaningful impact.   

But that’s how things apparently work under the rule of Donald Trump. Allegedly!

Read the entire story by ProPublica at: Amid Mass ICE Arrests, Trump Pardon Recipient Juan Orlando Hernández Given Special Treatment

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