Drug Trafficking

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.

Intelligence reports say the Coleman organization, which works for the Sinaloa cartel, controls maritime drug-smuggling routes at Puerto Cortés; one member was arrested during Operation Mare Nostrum on August 3, but leader Luis Felipe Aguilera Coleman escaped.

Investigative reporting traces how the Mexican cartel Los Zetas expanded control over cocaine corridors from South America through Central America to Mexico, including routes through Honduras, after eliminating a Guatemalan rival clan in 2008 and directly confronting Honduran police in Copán in 2011.

Military police arrested a suspected drug distributor in the La Rosa neighborhood of Comayagüela and seized nine wraps of cocaine, twenty of crack cocaine, and two of marijuana, along with a mobile phone for investigation.

A federal indictment in New York accuses Yulan Andony Archaga Carías, alias 'Porky', of running MS-13 in Honduras as a criminal enterprise that smuggled cocaine to the US, rented hitmen to drug traffickers, supplied machine guns, and ordered murders of rivals and disloyal gang members.

National Police arrested two men suspected of drug trafficking in separate operations in Talanga and Guaimaca.

Fermín Alberto García Isaza, a Colombian wanted by Colombia since 2010 for drug trafficking and linked to a 211-kilogram cocaine seizure in Honduras in 2015, was arrested in Puerto Lempira and will face extradition proceedings.

A poll shows 55.3% of Hondurans disapprove of President Trump's pardon of former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in New York in 2024 on drug-trafficking and weapons charges and returned to Honduras on July 26.

Prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for Luis Francisco Núñez Santos, convicted of transporting drugs, during a sentencing hearing in San Pedro Sula.

Police arrested a 20-year-old suspected MS-13 member accused of distributing cocaine, marijuana, and crack in El Progreso, Yoro, seizing drugs and a cellphone.

Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez's homily about how drug traffickers and criminals bury illicit money triggered debate among lawmakers, with some urging caution in linking politicians to crime and others arguing the problem extends far beyond cash to property, businesses, and major investments.