Browse Honduras Daily Stories

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 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.

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.

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.

A judge ordered two brothers, Denis Josué and Junior Joel Puerto Ramos, held pending trial for the May murder and incineration of three men in El Cimarrón, with an initial hearing set for August 27; four suspects are now in the case.

The Public Ministry's anti-drug directorate and the Armed Forces seized a bundle containing 20 packages of alleged cocaine on a Choluteca beach, recovered abandoned at the shoreline in a black-wrapped package typical of organized-crime maritime drug trafficking.

Police say video surveillance and witness statements place Carlos Eduardo Zaldívar Cervantes, alias El Texas, at the killing of law student Marvin Fernández in San Pedro Sula; prosecutors plan to seek his arrest on the murder charge after he faces an initial hearing on drug-trafficking allegations.

Police say businessman Jaime Roberto Becker Menardi, shot dead outside his motorcycle and car dealership in San Pedro Sula on August 8, likely was killed over financial debts to friends, according to investigators working several theories.

ATIC agents and military intelligence arrested Yasser José Castillo Méndez on charges of aggravated drug trafficking as a member of "Los Castillos," a criminal organization operating in Honduras's southern region.

Jesús Renán Guardado, 39, a miner who had worked for a company in El Mochito for 17 years, was shot and killed on a road near Las Vegas, Santa Bárbara on the morning of August 15; his father said the family had no involvement in any disputes.

Honduras's telecommunications authority reports that Israeli-made signal-blocking technology deployed across 21 prisons has cut outgoing calls by 99%, though inmates continue to evade restrictions by smuggling mobile devices and using Wi-Fi messaging apps.

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.

Intelligence reports say the Coleman organization, which works for the Sinaloa cartel, controls maritime drug-smuggling routes at Puerto Cortés; one member was arrested during Operation Mare Nostrum on August 3, but leader Luis Felipe Aguilera Coleman escaped.

Police arrested two men, ages 45 and 21, allegedly linked to the criminal organization run by alias 'Juan el Malón,' a figure authorities accuse of orchestrating violence, forced displacement, and illegal logging in the Merendón reserve area.

Police have neutralized at least 10 self-kidnapping hoaxes from January through July, in which perpetrators—often family members—fake abduction to extort money, documents, or property from relatives, a crime criminologists attribute to eroding social values and economic desperation.

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.

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.