The Region - News from Oct. 14, 1985

A former consul general for Honduras in Los Angeles testified that he does not know how 13 kilograms of cocaine got into his luggage last July when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Rio de Janiero. Oscar Judas Oqueli-Hernandez, 39, who was Honduras’ consul general here in 1983 and 1984, took the witness stand in U.S. District Court to deny that he was trying to smuggle the cocaine, valued at $9.5 million, into the country. Oqueli-Hernandez steadfastly denied any knowledge of the cocaine although he admitted during cross-examination that he supervised the packing of the luggage. Oqueli-Hernandez and another Honduran citizen, Gustavo Alvarado, 34, face drug smuggling charges after Customs Service agents discovered the drugs in one of the former consul general’s suitcases. Charges against a third man arrested in the case, Roberto Kattan, 40, a former Honduran consul general in Brazil, were dropped.