Honduras Security News

An armed attack on a lobster-fishing vessel in the Bay Islands reportedly left up to six people dead, though authorities have yet to confirm casualties; an anonymous source linked the attack to conflicts over dwindling lobster stocks in the area.

A mobile-phone shop in Ocotepeque closed after two robberies in 35 days left it without inventory or cash, prompting merchants and residents to demand action as crime forces businesses to shut.

Germán Alonzo Torres, 64, and his son Jerson Uriel Alonzo Juárez, 33, were killed in an armed attack at their home in Piedras Amarillas, Campamento; a woman was also wounded and hospitalized.

Yamileth Bonilla Avilés, a 20-to-22-year-old mother of two and social media content creator from Nueva Arcadia, Copán, was killed in an armed attack early Sunday in La Entrada as she traveled by motorcycle.

Honduras National Police denied reports that a bus carrying Salvadoran tourists was attacked by stone-throwing on August 6, saying the vehicle traveled under police escort in the southern region with no incidents reported.

A 27-year-old construction worker from Intibucá staged a fake abduction and demanded L1 million (about $40,000) from his employer and colleagues in Marcala, La Paz, but police found him unharmed on a coffee farm, where he admitted the scheme was meant to pay debts and avoid work.

A 20-year-old motorcyclist, Jeison Fajardo, died in a traffic accident on the highway between Santa Bárbara and San Pedro Sula; police cordoned the scene as locals mourned the loss.

Jaime Roberto Becker Menardi, a San Pedro Sula businessman, was shot and killed on Saturday evening as he left his shop near the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras boulevard; a gunman on a motorcycle fired multiple shots, and authorities are investigating the motive.

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 man was shot and killed on Saturday at the Viveros bus station on the North Boulevard in San Pedro Sula; witnesses suggested he may have been a robbery suspect, though police have not confirmed the claim.

A man was arrested in Piraera, Lempira, after fatally shooting his wife María Reineria Villanueva Castillo, 48, and wounding his stepdaughter; he confessed and said he acted while intoxicated during a dispute.

Antony Castillo Garrido, a young resident of Comayagua, died at Hospital General Santa Teresa after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on his home; authorities are investigating the motive and seeking the attackers.

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.

Social-media videos and posts from Brayan Wilfredo Salgado Ruiz, one of six people killed in a massacre in Olanchito, Yoro, on August 4, have sparked widespread commentary as police investigate what they preliminarily suspect was a dispute between criminal organizations over illicit activities in the area.

A man was fatally attacked with a blade and set on fire on the CA-11 highway near Belén, Lempira; authorities recovered the charred body and sent it for forensic identification.

A medical examiner testified on the third day of a retrial that nursing student Keyla Martínez, who died in police custody in 2021, died of mechanical asphyxiation, contradicting the accused officer's claim that she took her own life.

Authorities rescued a 12-year-old girl from a billiards hall in Tepanguare, La Paz, after she was forced to work there and allegedly abused by customers and a family associate with her grandparents' knowledge; both grandparents were arrested.

Police arrested Jhoel Salomón Pineda García, 31, known as "El Peludo," a suspect in a kidnapping in Yoro in which the perpetrators demanded three million lempiras (about $120,000).

Daniel Meraz confessed in court on August 7 to the June 3 femicide of nurse Elvia Mercedes Gómez López, his ex-partner in San Manuel, Cortés; sentencing is set for August 12, with prosecutors seeking 18–25 years imprisonment.

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.

Orlin Francisco Turcios Guillén, 32, a livestock merchant in Gualaco, Olancho, was shot and killed on Thursday while heading to his ranch; authorities have not disclosed a motive or identified suspects.

Two men were killed in the La Llorona community of Dulce Nombre de Culmí, Olancho; preliminary reports indicate the victims were engaged in selling plastic products, and authorities had not yet arrived at the scene.

Authorities recovered the remains of an unidentified man from a water well in La Ceiba, Atlántida, in an advanced state of decomposition; police and forensic teams are investigating to identify the victim and determine the circumstances.

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.

A new security-camera video shows Jorge Luis Castellanos Sosa being shot while taking cover behind desks as two armed attackers broke into a Danlí bank agent and opened fire; the attackers fled after the failed robbery, and Castellanos died hours later at a local hospital.

A court in Tegucigalpa has stalled for 18 months on two appeals challenging the pretrial detention of four men accused of the July 2020 disappearance of five Garífuna community leaders from Triunfo de la Cruz, with prosecutors filing a motion to force a ruling.

Five construction workers buried in a collapse at a West Bay work site in Roatán were all rescued alive on August 5, with injuries ranging from shoulder and leg fractures to lacerations; one was taken to Hospital Satuyé for treatment.

Four people were shot and killed in the colonia 15 de Septiembre neighborhood of Olanchito on Tuesday night when four armed gunmen on two motorcycles opened fire without warning; three of the victims were from the same family.

Honduras's National Penitentiary Institute will pilot electronic wallets in prisons to replace cash in inmate canteens, following an alleged embezzlement of 8 million lempiras (about $320,000) at Támara prison.