Browse Honduras Daily Stories

A US federal court document from 2005 exposed a network of Honduran National Police officers—from inspector to subcommissioner rank—accused of using their positions to protect cocaine shipments for the criminal organization Los Cachiros, one of the Atlantic region's most powerful gangs.

Olvin Reynaldo Arriaga Baca, alias "Porking," was released on conditional liberty in April 2014 after being deemed a model prisoner, but killed two children six days later for refusing to work as gang lookouts; in 2025, he was convicted alongside other Pandilla 18 members in the deaths of three gang leaders in prison.

Experts say about 20% of Honduras's homicides involve attackers on motorcycles, a tactic that allows rapid execution and escape; a 2012 law banning two men per bike in certain municipalities remains poorly enforced.

More than 8,000 Honduran women have been murdered since 2005, with 139 cases recorded through June 2026, and the OV-UNAH warns crimes are growing more brutal, with patterns linked to organized crime.

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.

The 2011 killing of two university students by National Police officers in Tegucigalpa sparked Honduras's largest police purge, leading authorities to separate about 6,000 officers and hire 14,000 new recruits under reformed standards.

Women's rights activists warn that femicides in Honduras are increasingly linked to gang territorial disputes, with women killed to send messages rather than in domestic violence contexts.

Honduras's public-transport sector reports paying roughly 500 million lempiras (about $20 million) annually to criminal gangs, with some bus and taxi routes in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula now shuttered due to threats and attacks on drivers.

Michael Adolf Dixon Rivers, a Honduran drug trafficker who operated Caribbean shipping routes, was sentenced to 14 years in US federal prison in May 2022 after authorities intercepted approximately 3 metric tons of cocaine near Aruba in 2019, unraveling his international cocaine-smuggling conspiracy.

Honduran armed forces report inflicting L324 million (roughly $13 million) in losses on drug trafficking networks so far in 2026 through crop destruction, lab dismantling, and seizures of cocaine, weapons, and vehicles, even as criminal groups shift routes and rebuild.

Attorney Ángel Murillo was sworn in as director of the ATIC criminal investigation agency as Honduras undertakes a broader security overhaul, including the new National Crime Agency and a replacement anti-extortion division after five officers died in a botched raid.