Drug Trafficking

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.

Juan Carlos Arvizú Hernández, a Honduran drug trafficker known as 'Lanchita' and convicted of trafficking over 5,000 kg of cocaine through Central America to the United States, failed in his appeal to reduce his 30-year sentence, which he claimed violated Honduras's extradition treaty.

Officers from the anti-extortion unit arrested Carlos Daniel Bonilla Martínez, 26, the suspected leader of Los Cabezones, and a 16-year-old during a raid in San Pedro Sula; the gang is accused of extorting roughly 1 million lempiras monthly from merchants and residents in Yoro.

Former prosecutor Nilia Ramos criticized Honduras's courts for acquitting Alexander Ardón — who confessed in a U.S. court to drug trafficking and involvement in 56 murders — on money-laundering charges on August 24, and called for an audit of the judiciary to determine what went wrong.

A 37-year-old man from Danlí was extradited from the Dominican Republic to face charges of aggravated drug trafficking and criminal association; authorities say he coordinated a drug shipment from Colón to Danlí in November 2020 as part of an organized-crime structure.

A judge ordered seven men accused of drug trafficking, criminal association, and illegal weapons possession arrested in Villanueva, Cortés, held in pretrial detention at Morocelí prison pending an initial hearing on September 2.

A judge ordered nine suspects held in pretrial detention on charges of trafficking cocaine and marijuana as part of an organized distribution network spanning Colón, Francisco Morazán, and Choluteca departments.

The Public Ministry's anti-drug directorate and the Armed Forces seized a bundle containing 20 packages of alleged cocaine on a Choluteca beach, recovered abandoned at the shoreline in a black-wrapped package typical of organized-crime maritime drug trafficking.

Military Police arrested a suspected MS-13 member in the Smith neighborhood of Comayagüela on suspicion of drug trafficking, seizing cocaine, crack, marijuana, and cash.

Police arrested a 27-year-old Choloma resident on an outstanding warrant for drug trafficking and illegal possession of a firearm; the arrest warrant was issued by a local court in July 2023.

ATIC agents and military intelligence arrested Yasser José Castillo Méndez on charges of aggravated drug trafficking as a member of "Los Castillos," a criminal organization operating in Honduras's southern region.

Security screening detected four packets of cocaine on two women attempting to enter the Ilama penitentiary in Santa Bárbara during a visiting day; both were arrested and referred to police investigation for aggravated drug trafficking.

Military police seized firearms, ammunition, cocaine, crack, marijuana, nearly 13,200 lempiras (about $530), and cellphones in a raid on Brisas del Rosario neighborhood in Villanueva, Cortés; no arrests were reported.

Police arrested a man at El Dandy Market in San Pedro Sula after seizing suspected marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine, along with 1,100 lempiras in cash.

Authorities say a dispute between criminal groups over territory and a 700-kilogram cocaine shipment triggered a shootout in remote Belén, Gracias a Dios in August 2013, leaving 14–17 dead and more than a dozen missing, though the exact toll and circumstances remain unclear.

Police in Choloma arrested an 18-year-old laborer during a patrol in the La Pagán neighborhood after finding packages of what they suspect to be marijuana intended for distribution.

A Honduran court finished trying Alexander Ardón, a confessed drug trafficker whose testimony was central to the U.S. conviction of former president Juan Orlando Hernández (sentenced to 45 years), on money-laundering charges; the court will announce its verdict on August 24.

Police arrested a 33-year-old man known as 'El Guero' in San Pedro Sula on suspicion of being a sicario (hired killer) and coordinator of MS-13's contract-killing operations in the city; he was found with cocaine, crack, ammunition, and a firearm, and has a 14-year criminal history dating to a 2009 homicide.

Guatemalan authorities are investigating whether assassins from Honduras crossed the border to kill Edgar Estuardo Cáceres Barreira, a convicted drug trafficker who had served time in the US and returned to Guatemala.

Police arrested Jakaira Jennell Lucas Mc Laughlin, 29, a tour guide in Roatán, after seizing about one ounce of cocaine during a raid in French Harbour as part of operations targeting small-scale drug distribution in the Bay Islands.

Data from Honduras's prison authority show 171 foreign inmates from at least 18 nationalities, with 73 (43%) facing charges or convictions for drug trafficking, reflecting the country's role as a transit route for narcotics to North America.