Organized Crime

Honduras's Supreme Court has recommended that Congress reinstate the Effective Collaboration Law, a mechanism allowing prosecutors to work with organized-crime figures to dismantle criminal structures and reach higher-level leaders with verifiable evidence.

A Nicaraguan man was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 102,651 lempiras (about $4,100) after accepting responsibility for laundering $10,210 in undeclared cash seized at the El Amatillo border crossing in August.

Congress will advance a motion supporting the government's push to build a high-security prison for gang and organized-crime members, with plans to define the site, costs, and funding sources to begin construction within eight to ten months.

The Viva Berta encampment in Tegucigalpa, set up by Garífuna communities defending their ancestral lands from drug traffickers and commercial developers, confronts organized-crime pressure and state criminalization of land activists.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano has not ruled out a popular referendum to let citizens decide whether minors involved in gangs and organized crime should be tried as adults, a proposal drawing debate among legal experts about constitutional limits and international child-protection obligations.

Marco Paz, president of Congress's Security Commission, says lawmakers have passed anti-extortion reforms, given the security council power to designate criminal groups as terrorist organizations, and reformed prison regimes, while acknowledging that deputies have received threats for their action.

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.

A UNESCO mission will visit Honduras late 2026 to assess conservation efforts at the Plátano River Biosphere Reserve, Honduras's largest protected area, which remains on the World Heritage in Danger list due to illegal land occupation, poaching, and deforestation linked to organized crime.

Police arrested José Mauricio Interiano Perdomo, alias Casper, identified as a leader of the El Mudo gang in San Pedro Sula; authorities link him to a mass killing in April 2021 and allege the group commits home robberies, armed assaults, and murders.

Honduras National Police began a 70-day intensive operation in Tegucigalpa targeting organized crime structures under the Plan Shield of Honduras, deploying over 300 officers to conduct patrols, arrests of suspects with outstanding warrants, and targeted interventions through year-end.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano traveled to El Salvador with members of the legislative security commission to tour the Cecot terrorism prison and explore legal reforms and security cooperation between the two countries to combat organized crime.

Honduran congressional security committees will travel to El Salvador to study the CECOT high-security prison model as lawmakers weigh penal reforms to combat organized crime.

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.

Tomás Zambrano, president of the National Congress, said Honduras will combat gang violence and organized crime through new anti-terrorism legislation and reforms rather than declaring a state of exception, which he said suspends rights for the entire population.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano announced a proposed reform that would allow funds seized from organized crime to fund police, prosecutors, courts, and the military even before final conviction, rather than holding them during ongoing trials.

Attorney General Pablo Emilio Reyes is requesting a budget increase to L2.9 billion (about $116 million) and roughly double or triple the current 796 prosecutors to strengthen the Public Ministry's capacity to investigate organized crime and pursue serious offenses.

A security operation in the mountainous Marale area of Francisco Morazán killed two suspected members of the Cártel del Diablo, but three others escaped into nearby highlands; authorities are continuing the manhunt as part of broader nationwide operations that also netted 15 arrests.

Gang and organized-crime conflicts rank as the second leading cause of homicides in Honduras at 13% of killings from 2014 to April 2026, with one in three violent deaths in Francisco Morazán and 26% in Cortés attributed to gang violence.

Authorities arrested Orbin Enrique Velásquez Mendoza, alias Torba, a 29-year-old suspected member of the Berna criminal organization, on a warrant linked to the June 2024 kidnapping and disappearance of José Octavio Sosa Méndez and 11 others near Puerto Cortés.

The National Defense and Security Council declared three criminal organizations terrorist associations in an overnight meeting at the presidential palace on September 18, with the groups' names to be announced once enforcement actions begin.

A Honduran court sentenced Mauricio Cárcamo León, Isaías Gómez García, and Pedro Edil Carías González to five years in prison for criminal association as members of the 'El Mango' gang, which was dismantled in February 2025 and included former police officers.

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.

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.

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.

A video statement by Dereck McNeil, a protected witness in the Angie Peña disappearance case, has emerged showing him claiming to have seen the young woman and naming alleged members of a criminal group called Los Delta; McNeil was later killed.

A man identified as Adán, who sold mobile phone credits, was found shot dead in the Lomas de Medina neighborhood of Puerto Cortés on August 31; his motorcycle was abandoned at the scene.

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 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.

Congress expects to vote soon on security reforms including measures to deny substitute sentences to gang members, regulate gang tattoos, and extend detention-hearing deadlines to 48 hours, pending a Supreme Court legal opinion due next week.

Congress President Tomás Zambrano said three criminal organizations have been designated terrorist groups so far and more designations are possible, as the government announces new measures to tighten control in prisons and prevent gang leaders from directing crimes from detention.