NEW YORK — A defiant former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in New York Wednesday to 45 years in prison for teaming up with some bribe-paying drug traffickers for over a decade to ensure over 400 tons of cocaine made it to the United States.

Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Hernández to 45 years in a US prison and fined him $8 million, saying that the penalty should serve as a warning to 'well educated, well dressed' individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.