What were the charges and convictions for each defendant in the 400-ton cocaine case?

1. The headline defendant: Juan Orlando Hernández — conviction, sentence and later pardon

Prosecutors alleged Hernández accepted millions in bribes and used Honduran state power to protect U.S.‑bound cocaine shipments, accusing him of facilitating the importation of more than 400 tons of cocaine; a Manhattan jury found him guilty in March 2024, and he was serving a 45‑year federal sentence until President Trump granted him a pardon in December 2025 ^{[1] [2]}.

2. What “400 tons” refers to — a prosecutorial magnitude claim, not a multi‑defendant docket in these sources

The “more than 400 tons” figure appears in Justice Department summaries of the case against Hernández as the quantity he allegedly enabled into the U.S.; the sources present that number as part of the government’s characterization of the scope and violence of the trafficking network centered on him, rather than as a consolidated list of counts for a group of defendants in a single indictment published here ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Other cocaine prosecutions in the supplied reporting — different cases, different charges

The search results include multiple, separate DEA and U.S. Justice press items about large cocaine conspiracies and sentences — for example, defendants Pedro Castro‑Vasquez and Sonic Torres‑Garcia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine (Operation Carpet Ride context) and were sentenced under that statute ^[3]. Those releases describe distinct investigations (multi‑county conspiracies, multi‑kilogram seizures) and do not tie those defendants to the 400‑ton allegation attributed to Hernández ^[3].

4. Typical charges and penalties shown in these sources

Across the unrelated cases cited, the recurring federal charges are conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and individual counts of distribution; statutory penalties for conspiracies involving multi‑kilogram quantities can range from minimums of 10 years to life imprisonment and large fines, as the DOJ press release on a 15‑kilogram case makes explicit ^{[4] [5]}. Specific sentences vary by case facts, guilty pleas, and statutory thresholds ^{[4] [5]}.

5. What the sources do not provide — limits on defendant‑level detail

Available sources do not provide a comprehensive, named list of “each defendant” charged in a single “400‑ton cocaine case,” nor do they enumerate charges and convictions for multiple co‑defendants tied to that exact quantity; reporting in these links focuses on Hernández’s trial and conviction and on separate multi‑kilogram prosecutions with their own defendants ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

6. Competing perspectives and possible motives in coverage

Government statements frame Hernández as the linchpin of “one of the largest and most violent drug‑trafficking conspiracies,” citing the 400‑ton figure to show scale ^{[1] [2]}. Defense and political allies have disputed aspects of that characterization in wider coverage not included in the provided sources; available reporting here does not include those defense arguments or trial‑level nuance beyond the guilty verdict and sentence ^{[1] [2]}. The December 2025 pardon injects clear political dimensions, prompting partisan outcry noted in Reuters reporting ^[1].

7. Bottom line for your query

If you seek a catalog of charges and convictions “for each defendant” in a distinct 400‑ton case, current sources supplied here do not contain that roster; they identify Juan Orlando Hernández as the principal convicted defendant linked by prosecutors to facilitating over 400 tons of cocaine and point to other, separate federal drug cases with different defendants and quantities ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}. For a full defendant‑by‑defendant accounting tied to the 400‑ton allegation, court filings or a DOJ case docket for the Hernández matter — not supplied in these search results — would be the next, necessary sources ^{[1] [2]}.