Honduras Security News

Adán Fúnez, former mayor of Tocoa, was switched from pretrial detention to home detention on health grounds, prompting environmental advocates and victim lawyers to warn the change offers insufficient protection for the family of slain environmental defender Juan López and lacks safeguards against potential witness intimidation.

A judge in San Pedro Sula ordered a teacher at Instituto José Trinidad Reyes held in pretrial detention on charges of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old student on July 2, with a preliminary hearing set for September 7.

A Honduran court approved the extradition of 30-year-old Humberto Eliseo Sánchez Baca, known as "El Chevo," to El Salvador, where he faces charges of aggravated extortion, organized crime, and conspiracy to commit murder.

A 27-year-old woman from Francisco Morazán was arrested on charges of sexually exploiting her 14-year-old niece, who has a disability, by forcing her into sex acts at a motel and threatening to kill the child's mother to ensure silence.

Joel Alexander Orellana Ramos, 21, from La Lima, Cortés, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in Texas in 2024 and received an 8-year prison sentence; he will be required to register as a sex offender for life and faces deportation upon release.

Six members of a family, five of them children, died in a house fire in an impoverished neighborhood of San Pedro Sula on Wednesday; the cause remains under investigation.

A judge replaced pretrial detention with house arrest for Adán Fúnez Martínez, the former mayor of Tocoa accused of intellectual authorship in the September 2024 murder of environmental defender Juan Antonio López, citing the defendant's age and health concerns.

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.

Police in Tegucigalpa stopped a minibus driver on the Cerro Grande–Kennedy route after he drove against traffic to bypass congestion, endangering passengers and other motorists.

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.

A lawyer over 50 was found dead in his home in Cofradía, Cortés on Wednesday morning; family members said he had been struggling emotionally for about a month.

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 José Trinidad Reyes Institute teacher in San Pedro Sula, Lenin Marel Jaco García, is scheduled for his initial court hearing on July 31 after being accused of sexual assault against a minor; he remains in pretrial detention at El Progreso prison.

Honduras's road-transport authority warned citizens of a fraud scheme in which criminals send text messages impersonating the DNVT with fake traffic fines and links designed to steal personal information.

A fare collector and her assistant were shot and killed when gunmen opened fire on an intercity bus traveling between Trujillo and La Ceiba in Colón; the driver continued for over 25 kilometers to seek medical help before the victims were identified as Leda Hernández and Geovanny.

National Police arrested two men, known as "El Yal" and "El Diablo," in connection with the death of a homeless woman in El Progreso, Yoro, who was killed with a concrete block.

José Sabillón, a shop owner in central Honduras, was shot and killed at a restaurant in Siguatepeque on Tuesday morning; police said they are investigating the motive.

The remains of Olvin Ariel Aguilera, a man reported missing by family, were discovered dismembered in El Zapote, San Antonio de Flores, Choluteca.

Six severely burned victims from a fire in Esquipulas, San Pedro Sula, that killed a family of seven are undergoing forensic identification at the morgue, with authorities warning the process will be delayed due to the extent of carbonization and the need for dental records and possibly DNA testing.

Police arrested a woman suspected of negligent homicide and negligent injury following a traffic accident in Taulabé.

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

A court in San Pedro Sula convicted José Francisco Estrada Rodríguez of serious negligent injury to two women, Rosana Mejia and Ashlin de los Ángeles Ferrera Castillo, with sentencing scheduled for August 12.

The Attorney General's Office and financial crimes unit arrested a member of a Colombian-Venezuelan ATM-fraud network in San Pedro Sula and seized 500,000 lempiras (about $20,000) in cash.

A National Court judge suspended abbreviated proceedings against Gloria Judith Hernández Zelaya after she retracted her statement before the court in a case involving organized crime, environment, and corruption charges.

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.

María Gregoria Martínez, from Las Lajas in Comayagua, was struck and killed by a vehicle on July 27 in the Dos Caminos sector of Villanueva while visiting family; authorities have not yet determined the driver's responsibility.

The anti-extortion and counterterrorism division arrested a man known as "El Matata," allegedly an MS-13 gang leader in the Sula Valley, seizing a firearm and cocaine with an illicit market value of over 750,000 lempiras (about $30,000).

Police arrested a 19-year-old man accused of rape, robbery, and other sexual assaults against a child in Comayagua.

The body of a woman was discovered unclothed in a vacant lot in the Cabañas neighborhood of El Progreso, Yoro; authorities are investigating the circumstances and possible motive.