How a Man Convicted of Running a Latin American Narco State Landed a Pardon

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/how-a-man-convicted-of-running-a-latin-american-narco-state-landed-a-pardon-c2353aef?mod=hp_lead_pos3

Juan Orlando Hernández’s unusual network of Trump allies and MAGA influencers helped deliver an extraordinary pardon

President Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was the result of something extraordinary for a Central American leader and convicted cocaine trafficker—a web of powerful advocates stretching from Washington to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump’s announcement stunned the president’s allies and some members of his administration, including officials who spent years building the landmark case against Hernández, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision allowed Hernández, who had been serving a 45-year prison sentence for conspiring with cartels to ship 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S., to walk free this week as the Trump administration escalates its war on narco-traffickers by launching airstrikes on low-level smugglers at sea.