U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Haitian police arrested the son of former Honduras President Porfirio Lobo in an anti-drug operation in Haiti and transferred him to New York for prosecution, the former leader and Honduras government said Thursday.
Fabio Lobo Lobo, 43, appeared before a judge in New York City on Friday, two days after his arrest, a statement from the Honduras government said, according to New York Daily News.
The father admitted the arrest of his son in an interview with the government's Channel 8 television network.
Lobo said he was very hurt over the arrest but hopes that his son can prove his innocence.
"I cannot say that he is guilty; I cannot say that he is not," Lobo said, according to the Daily News. "Fabio is not a child. He is a man with a family and must answer for his actions."
Porfirio Lobo was elected president of Honduras in 2010 a year after a coup d'etat removed his predecessor, Manuel Zelaya, from office. Lobo served until 2014.
It was not the first time a president's son was arrested for alleged drug trafficking and flown to the U.S. to face charges.
Dino Bouterse, the son of Suriname President Desi Bouterse, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2013 in Panama City International Airport for alleged drug smuggling and weapon possession. He was turned over to U.S. authorities, who took him to New York City. The following day, Bouterse appeared in a Manhattan federal court and pleaded not guilty to the charges before a magistrate judge.
U.S. prosecutors accused Bouterse of smuggling a suitcase filled with 22 pounds of cocaine aboard a commercial flight from Suriname to the Caribbean in July 2013, according to a USA Today report.
Bouterse was arrested in his own country for weapons and drug possession in 2004. He was convicted and sentenced the following year to eight years in prison, but released in 2008.
Bouterse's father was a convicted drug trafficker before he was elected president of Suriname in July 2010.
