Drug Trafficking

U.S. ICE deported three Hondurans—Víctor Manuel Zelaya García (firearms and traffic convictions), José Daniel Burgos Laínez (armed robbery), and Ludwig Criss Zelaya Romero (cocaine conspiracy and firearms charges)—among 12 immigrants removed from Texas.

The Military Police discovered an approximately two-acre illegal coca cultivation with 11,000 plants in a mountainous area of La Másica, Atlántida, during long-range patrols targeting drug trafficking and organized crime.

National Police arrested a man in Comayagua who was hiding drugs in a freezer at a commercial establishment used as a front for drug sales, seizing over 30 packets of suspected drugs and cash.

National Police arrested a man known as "El Cuico," described as an independent drug distributor, during a raid in Potrerillos, Cortés.

Police arrested Aldair Torres Romero, 21, in Concepción del Norte, Santa Bárbara, on suspicion of coordinating drug distribution points and ordering homicides as an MS-13 member.

Police arrested a man suspected of MS-13 membership in Tegucigalpa's Dependencia neighborhood and seized six packets of cocaine, 18 packets of crack, seven packets of marijuana, and 300 lempiras in cash.

A judge ordered three suspected members of Pandilla 18 held in pretrial detention at the maximum-security prison El Pozo after police seized an AR-15 rifle, marijuana, and cell phones during a raid in San Pedro Sula; they face charges of drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, and terrorist association.

Police arrested Josué Antonio García, 18, in El Progreso on suspicion of drug trafficking and seized cocaine, crack, marijuana, and cash; authorities say he is an alleged MS-13 member.

Police arrested a 44-year-old man on drug-trafficking charges during an operation in Roatán, the Bay Islands municipality.

Garífuna communities on Honduras' Caribbean coast fighting to reclaim ancestral land face intimidation from drug traffickers and organized-crime charges from the state, two years after a 2024 government land-demarcation mission was abandoned under threats.

A plane owned by a company whose proprietor was implicated in drug trafficking links to former presidents Juan Orlando and Juan Antonio Hernández in the Pandora case is participating in the government's cloud-seeding operation to fight drought in Honduras's dry corridor, at a cost of over 16 million lempiras (about $640,000).

Honduras's armed forces destroyed illegal coca and marijuana plantations in Olancho and Colón, seizing approximately 22,000 coca plants across four acres in Dulce Nombre de Culmí and 7,000 marijuana plants on two acres near Tocoa as part of nationwide drug-trafficking operations.

Police arrested José Adrián Sierra Flores, 24, known as "El Negro," a suspected MS-13 member accused of drug trafficking, during an operation in Comayagüela as part of Operation Shield of Honduras.

A federal indictment from New York describes a 2015 conspiracy to land a cocaine-laden plane at Roatán's airport, with an accused Honduras-based conspirator allegedly tasked with providing flight schedules and helping evade Honduran customs and security.

Authorities conducted 11 raids across Colón and Yoro targeting the Montoya Natarén criminal structure, arresting five people and seizing cash, weapons, two vehicles, and 12 phones; investigators are now analyzing the evidence for money-laundering connections.

Authorities arrested two men alleged to be Pandilla 18 members during a security operation on Tegucigalpa's peripheral ring road; police say they faced charges related to drug trafficking and had been sought for months.

Honduran naval and air forces, coordinating with the Prosecutor's Office, seized 1,661 kilograms of cocaine packed in 55 bundles off Gracias a Dios and arrested four Hondurans in a Friday operation in the Caribbean.

Prosecutors say the drug trafficking organization linked to former footballer Óscar Bonilla received at least six metric tons of cocaine from Colombia, using fast boats to offload shipments at sea, then stashing and gradually moving the drugs through La Mosquitia and the Honduran Caribbean.

Joint Armed Forces Task Force Xatruch arrested a man known as "El Niño" in the Las Palmas neighborhood of Sabá, Colón, seizing over 40 aluminum packets of alleged crack cocaine and a tablet during an operation targeting local drug sales.

Military police arrested a suspected Pandilla 18 member and confiscated guns, drugs, and tactical gear — including a vest bearing police insignia — during simultaneous raids in El Progreso and nearby communities.

Videos from the funeral of a drug lord killed by the Army alongside his wife showed armed attendees firing weapons; the president posted on social media identifying those in the footage as criminals seeking to intimidate the public.

A judge ordered three men held pending trial on charges of transporting 1,234 kg of cocaine in a hidden-compartment tanker truck seized in El Progreso, Yoro on August 27; they also face weapons charges.

Honduras's Naval Forces seized 800 gallons of smuggled fuel, three boats, and satellite communications equipment during a raid on clandestine supply points north of Caratasca in Gracias a Dios, disrupting a transnational crime network's Caribbean logistics.

Security Minister Gerzon Onán Velásquez and National Police Director Rigoberto Oseguera Mass announced increased patrols, community prevention programs, and improved street lighting in La Entrada, Copán, to combat extortion and drug trafficking.

Honduras's anti-narcotics directorate, aided by military police, carried out four court-authorized raids in Cortés on September 5 against suspected MS-13 members, seizing 3 kg of cocaine, firearms, 11 phones, six vehicles, and about L7,500 in cash, and arrested one suspect.

A witness testifying in the federal trial of Sergio Mejía Duarte in Miami described a 2011 Easter trip to Roatán where Los Cachiros brothers met with Mejía Duarte to discuss a small aircraft that had been destroyed and buried.

Former congressman Fredy Nájera sought to withdraw his 2018 guilty plea in a New York federal drug-trafficking case, arguing his lawyer Manuel Rocha had a conflict of interest because Rocha also represented Honduran drug trafficker Wilter Blanco — the man Nájera's defense wanted to implicate in the 2009 killing of General Julián Arístides González.

Police arrested two youths, including 23-year-old Omar Alejandro Luna Díaz, during a raid in Choloma and seized cocaine and crack allegedly packaged for street sales.

Police arrested Naly Johana Paz Martínez, 44, alias "La Patrona," an alleged MS-13 member who served as a drug supplier across Puerto Cortés neighborhoods, seizing 222 packets of suspected marijuana, cocaine, and crack along with a pickup truck used for distribution.

Court documents show the US prosecutor calculated a three-ton cocaine shipment linked to Honduran trafficker Fredy Mármol at $93.5 million (about L2.5 billion) using an average street price of $31,161.76 per kilogram during the conspiracy period.