He was extradited in 2004 and yesterday Belizean Robert James Hertular was convicted by a federal jury in a New York courtroom. Hertular was charged for threatening to kill federal agents in Belize and of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. The charges date back to May of 2001 when Hertular was linked to a shipment of 1.1 tons of cocaine seized in Belize.
Prosecutors said Hertular told Belizean police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents in 2001 that he was associated with a cocaine trafficker who headed the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or United Self-defense of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Hertular offered to give agents information if they stopped the case against him, prosecutors said. When they refused, prosecutors said Hertular threatened that his drug organization would hire hit men to kill them. The also alleged that he offered a hand grenade to a federal informant to be used against the agents.
Hertular will be sentenced on June 21st. He was extradited fromBbelize in 2004.
