Honduras Security News

Gunfire erupted outside a school in Juticalpa, Olancho, with at least two bullets striking a window of the building, alarming parents.

Junior Monge, 27, accused of leading a major cocaine-smuggling organization called Los Monges that moved drugs to the US and Europe via Honduras's Atlantic corridor, was arrested June 25 in northern Spain and faces extradition to Honduras.

Emely Melissa Zaens, a 23-year-old American, was found dead in a home in Comayagüela's Berlín neighborhood on June 26 after reportedly taking a painkiller and drinking an energy beverage; authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine the cause.

A court acquitted José Rodimiro Arita, former director of La Tolva maximum-security prison, of money laundering and criminal association charges, but found him guilty of breach of duty for failing to report 445,000 lempiras (about $17,800) that entered the facility; sentencing is scheduled for August 4.

Police arrested a 31-year-old man accused of distributing cocaine for MS-13 in the El Progreso municipality of Yoro, seizing 16 packets of white powder and 400 lempiras during the operation.

A young motorcyclist, Marlon Gerardo Antúnez Díaz, died after a traffic accident on a median of Boulevard Kuwait in Tegucigalpa.

Carlos Alberto Castillo was convicted of aggravated kidnapping in the September 2024 abduction of a nurse in San Pedro Sula, in which captors demanded 30 million lempiras (about $1.2 million) in ransom; authorities rescued the victim three days later after he was held in a Choloma house.

Police arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a 78-year-old woman in El Progreso, Yoro.

Alexander Montoya Úsuga, a cousin of jailed Clan del Golfo leader "Otoniel" and a key operator for the organization, used La Ceiba and Roatán as a base to coordinate cocaine shipments and money laundering between South America and the United States before his 2021 extradition to the US.

A truck crash in Tegucigalpa, a bus collision near Comayagua, and a landslide on the Tegucigalpa ring road killed at least 18 people this month, reigniting concerns about road safety and infrastructure oversight.

A fire in the Primavera neighborhood of San Pedro Sula destroyed three homes and killed Rubí Chelsea Cáceres, 32, a mother of two, who suffered severe burns after escaping the flames; another person was injured.

One person died and several others were injured when a vehicle overturned in Santa Rita, Santa Bárbara department; the deceased was identified as Adán Aguilar, and the injured are receiving treatment at Santa Bárbara Integrated Hospital.

Police arrested four members of the criminal gang known as Los Sagastume on June 25, accused of kidnapping businessman Héctor Eduardo Lisser Pinto in April 2025; the victim was rescued after 36 hours in captivity.

Carlos Humberto Vivas, 49, and Juan Pablo Vivas, 44, were arrested in Las Vegas, Santa Bárbara, on suspicion of killing their brother José Luis in April 2018 by striking him with an axe and strangling him with a rope, then dismembering and dumping his body in a septic tank.

Honduras's national human-rights commission documented 65 police officers murdered in 2012, averaging one death every five days, with 85% of cases remaining unsolved and most victims killed while off duty.

Doris Mayell Mendoza, a former National Party official and candidate for vice mayor of Tegucigalpa, surrendered to police after shooting a man who allegedly entered her home in Juticalpa to rob it; authorities say she acted in self-defense when he attacked her with a club.

Óscar Amilcar Alvarado Velásquez, secretary of a peasant cooperative in Colón, was shot dead on June 22 in the Aguán Valley, marking another killing of a rural leader amid state militarization and a new law social groups say favors agribusiness over peasant land rights.

A judge ordered Marvin Ramón Salgado held in pretrial detention on charges of animal cruelty and violence against women and threats allegedly targeting two women, with his initial hearing set for June 29.

The Public Ministry's human-trafficking unit conducted raids in Choloma, Cortés, to investigate alleged child sexual-abuse material crimes.

An unidentified man in his 30s was discovered dead beneath the Río Danto bridge in La Ceiba with his bicycle nearby; authorities suspect he may have fallen from the bridge overnight.

A judge in Yoro ordered pretrial detention for two inmates accused of sexually assaulting a fellow prisoner at the Olanchito penal facility; prosecutors say they have forensic and witness evidence for a hearing scheduled for June 25.

A driver has been ordered held in pretrial detention in Támara after a crash killed seven National Police officers.

A tow-truck driver involved in a fatal accident at a rodeo in Comayagua has been formally charged and ordered held in pretrial detention.

Police arrested a man accused of homicide in Ocotepeque department more than two years after the killing.

Police in Comayagua arrested several suspects and referred a child to juvenile authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Authorities in San Pedro Sula arrested a man suspected of child sexual abuse material offenses in an operation by the Public Ministry's unit against human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

Two men arrested in La Ceiba on suspicion of robbery were freed after the 24-hour legal detention period expired without formal complaints from victims, leaving prosecutors without grounds to seek charges.

A partial hillside collapse in the Loarque neighborhood of Comayagüela sparked a large fire at a nearby business on June 23; municipal crews provided emergency support, water trucks, and search coordination to control the blaze and assess ongoing risks.

After nearly 40 hours of rescue work on Tegucigalpa's ring road, teams recovered the bodies of Claudia Varela, Félix Núñez, and Karen Girón from a warehouse collapse and fire.

Two trained search-and-rescue dogs from the Military Police worked over 38 hours to locate victims in the rubble of a collapsed warehouse complex in Tegucigalpa's Loarque neighborhood, helping recover the third and final victim.