honduras organized crime news

Due to its geographic location, Honduras  is one of the most important drug trafficking transshipment points  between South America and Mexico. With every branch of government and its armed forces plagued by corruption, the Central American nation has long played a vital role as a  transit point in which criminal groups enjoy official protection.

Over the last two decades, political protection has allowed traditional drug trafficking groups to flourish. Testimony provided by drug traffickers and Honduran politicians on trial in the United States has revealed deep-seated connections between organized crime and major political parties. 

Control of illegal activities in Honduras lies in the hands of local criminal groups connected to the country’s political and economic elite. The judicial system suffers from political manipulation and corruption, as well as a lack of transparency and capacity. Meanwhile, the Honduran police have proven to be one of the most corrupt public institutions. The Army has also been accused of participating in criminal activities.

Most recently, the country’s crime groups have evolved and are now cultivating coca and processing their own cocaine after years of low-level experimentation, which has permanently altered the country’s drug trafficking infrastructure.

Geography

Honduras, the second-largest country in Central America, is bordered by Guatemala to the west, El Salvador to the southwest, and Nicaragua to the southeast. The country has a long Caribbean coastline and access to the Pacific Ocean via the Gulf of Fonseca in the south.

The remote, forested northeastern Moskitia region and small islands off the Caribbean coast have become prime landing spots for drug flights and maritime cocaine shipments arriving by boat from Colombia, South America’s main cocaine producer. Large swathes of the country’s forests have been cleared by drug traffickers to build air strips and create money laundering opportunities. Honduras’ largely unmanned border with Guatemala is an important crossing point for all types of contraband, including people and drugs.

History

Honduras became an independent country in 1838. Its first half-century of existence was characterized by tensions between political factions. Beginning in the early 1900s, the United States became heavily involved in Honduras, including by deploying US soldiers to protect the interests of American companies that had  invested heavily in the banana industry, transforming the country  into a so-called “banana republic.”

Political turmoil and severe economic struggles based in large part on the country’s reliance on exports fueled a military revolt in 1957. This paved the way for several decades of military rule marked by a series of scandals, a bloodless coup, and a brief war with neighboring El Salvador. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Honduras was an island of relative stability in the region as its Central American neighbors — Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador — were rocked by civil wars. But as one of the poorest Latin American countries surrounded by war, Honduras became vulnerable to corruption and organized crime.

Throughout the 1980s, Honduras was used as a trampoline for the movement of all types of illicit goods, from drugs to weapons and other contraband. Even after Central America’s civil wars ended, these trafficking routes would remain.

The US government, focused on fighting what it considered a burgeoning communist threat in the region, used Honduras as a hub for supporting anti-communist fighters in El Salvador and Nicaragua. They even established training and attack bases along the country’s borders. Honduras became increasingly militarized during this time, setting the stage for traditional economic powers to be eclipsed by a new elite class.

During this time, Honduras’ first major international drug trafficker, Juan Ramón Matta Ballesteros, set up a “Honduran bridge” between Mexico’s emerging Guadalajara Cartel and Colombia’s Medellín Cartel to facilitate the northern transport of cocaine into the United States. Matta Ballesteros relied on ties to the highest levels of power in Honduras, particularly within the military, and owned legitimate businesses in the country. The US government even contracted Matta Ballesteros’ airline company to shuttle aid and weapons to Nicaragua’s “Contras,” a US-funded rebel group fighting against the left-wing Sandinista government.

In 1985, Matta Ballesteros became one of the most-wanted men in the region when he and the Guadalajara Cartel allegedly tortured and killed Enrique Camarena, a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. In 1988, Matta Ballesteros was arrested by US Marshals in Honduras and extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of drug smuggling and kidnapping and sentenced to life.

In the 1990s, Honduras was marred by rising crime and violence, corruption, economic crisis, and environmental devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch, one of the worst storms to ever strike the Western Hemisphere.

Honduras experienced a new surge in drug trafficking and other illicit activity in the early 2000s. As Mexican drug trafficking organizations gained more control over the distribution chain, the importance of Central America grew. Local transport groups emerged across Honduras, the most important of which were the Cachiros, in the northeastern Caribbean coastal department of Colón, and the Valle Valles, in the western Copán department bordering Guatemala. These organizations worked with other Honduran crime bosses, such as business magnate and trafficker José Natividad Luna Pereira, alias “Chepe Luna,”drug trafficker José Miguel Handal Pérez, alias “Chepe Handal,” as well as international crime groups like the Sinaloa Cartel.

President Manuel Zelaya took office in 2006 with promises to tackle crime and implement social programs. But in 2009, Zelaya was ousted in a US-backed military coup after calling for a constitutional referendum to pave the way for his reelection. Criminal groups took advantage of the resulting political turmoil, as well as corruption within the country’s security forces and political elite, to expand their activities.

During the 2010s, Honduras’ homicide rate skyrocketed, peaking in 2011 but slowly declining since due to a combination of factors. The primary drivers of violence are gangs like the Barrio 18 and MS13, which concentrate their criminal activities in urban areas and recruit young people, many of whom are suffering from widespread economic inequality and a lack of opportunity. These gangs, also present in Guatemala and El Salvador, often exert influence over entire neighborhoods, demanding extortion payments from businesses and residents, and running local drug sales and kidnapping rings.

For more than 20 years, Honduras has pursued an “iron fist” security strategy against gangs. These policies, which have not addressed the root causes of gang membership or provided rehabilitation for gang members, have led to an increase in the prison population and burdened Honduras’ already stumbling penal system.

The National Party maintained control of the presidency following the 2009 coup, first with President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and then with President Juan Orlando Hernández’s election in 2013 and controversial re-election in 2017, which was marred by fraud allegations.

In 2010, the United States designated Honduras as a major drug transit country for the first time. Since then, drug trafficking activities have intensified in the region, driven in part by a boom in Andean cocaine production and rising consumption in the Northern Hemisphere. Honduras has cooperated closely with the United States on combating drug trafficking in recent years. In May 2014, Carlos Arnoldo Lobo, alias “El Negro,”  became the first Honduran drug trafficker to be extradited to the United States. A number of other high-profile criminal suspects have subsequently been extradited, and several have provided information to US authorities as part of plea agreements.

Joint anti-drug cooperation between Honduras and the United States has at times sparked controversy. In 2012, deadly force was used during several controversial anti-narcotic missions involving personnel from the DEA and Honduran National Police, including one incident in which several civilians were killed.

US anti-drug efforts also uncovered uncomfortable connections between one of their most prominent allies and the drug trade. The most emblematic case was that of Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández and his brother, former President Hernández. Tony was convicted in a US court in October 2019 of acting as a link between corrupt government officials and various drug trafficking groups like the Valle Valle,  Cachiros, and the Atlantic Cartel. 

Then-President Hernández had been known as a close US ally on security and other matters. However, just weeks after leaving office in early 2022, US prosecutors asked for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges. Hernández was eventually convicted on those charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024. 

Corruption has long been endemic in the country. In 2016, public protests against corruption led to the creation of the Mission to Support the Fight Against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Misión de Apoyo contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad en Honduras – MACCIH), which was backed by the Organization of American States (OAS). 

The MACCIH worked with a specialized unit within the Honduran Attorney General’s Office to uncover embezzlement networks involving hundreds of officials across the political spectrum. They also uncovered a scheme to divert money destined for social programs to electoral campaigns, including those of Juan Orlando Hernández. The scheme was run by the president’s late sister, Hilda Hernández. 

Nevertheless, at the end of 2019, the Honduran Congress issued a recommendation to disband the MACCIH. The mission left the country in January 2020 and a few months later, several of the most emblematic cases started to be buried. 

The following year, leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro – who is married to ex-President Manuel Zelaya- won the 2021 presidential election in part on a promise to root out corruption. Her administration proposed a United Nations-backed anti-corruption mission known as the International Commission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Comisión Internacional contra la Corrupción e Impunidad en Honduras – CICIH), but that commission has yet to come to fruition.

Castro, Zelaya, and their close family members have also faced allegations of corruption – some stemming from a video published by InSight Crime in September 2024 that showed former President Zelaya’s brother, Carlos Zelaya, negotiating bribes in 2013 with the Cachiros and other prominent drug traffickers.

Criminal Groups

Honduras’ most important criminal organizations have largely been dismantled over the last decade following the arrests of their top leaders and their extraditions to the United States. Nevertheless, testimony given by these criminal bosses during several US trials has provided evidence of their continued power and  penetration of the highest spheres of political power. 

The former leader of the Cachiros, Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, alleged in his testimony that he operated with the assistance or complicity of various political and economic elites, including Tony Hernández. Remnants of that group still hold considerable power in the west of the country, according to InSight Crime’s field research.

The Valle Valle drug trafficking organization, which trafficked several tons of cocaine per month to the United States from the Guatemalan border, has also almost been dismantled after various members were prosecuted in the United States. Nevertheless, field investigations conducted by InSight Crime found that relatives of the group’s former leaders continue to operate as the country’s criminal landscape is reconfigured. 

The Atlantic Cartel was another important group at the beginning of the century. The group operated under the protection of military agents, police, and judges. Its leader, Wilter Neptalí Blanco, was arrested in Costa Rica in November 2016 and extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2017 and was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Political protection was key to the operations of these historic drug trafficking groups, and continues to be today. In El Paraíso, Copán, for example, former mayor Alexander Ardón controlled the drug trade from his municipality to Guatemala. In the remote Moskitia region, a political clan formed by the Paisano Wood brothers operated a drug trafficking network that received cocaine shipments and sent them to the border with Guatemala. This type of collusion between politicians and criminal actors continues in various regions around the country.

Finally, the primary gangs present in Honduras are the MS13 and Barrio 18, which operate mainly in urban areas like Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula, as well as in rural zones close to the border with El Salvador. Both gangs are dedicated to extortion and small-scale drug trafficking, and exert substantial  control within the country’s prisons. The MS13 has expanded its role in the regional drug trade, but its operations have yet to rival those of larger drug trafficking groups.

Security Forces

Honduras’ national police force is overseen by the Secretary of Security and had just under 17,000 officers in mid-2023, or about 166 agents per 100,000 people. The National Police is responsible for preventing and investigating crimes in Honduras. It consists of a variety of divisions and special units focused on anti-gang and anti-narcotics operations, investigations, intelligence, and community police. The police also work in coordination with a controversial anti-crime task force, known as the Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (FUSINA), which includes prosecutors and soldiers. 

Honduran police have been known as one of the most corrupt forces in the region. Agents have been accused of a range of corrupt acts, from passing information to criminal groups, to letting drug shipments pass through without inspection, protecting drug trafficking activities, participating in violent criminal operations, and in some cases even directing them. At the beginning of 2016, Honduras created a commission to purge the police following revelations that leading members had participated in the 2009 murder of the country’s anti-drug czar. Unlike previous efforts to purge its ranks, the commission made some early progress, reviewing hundreds of senior officials and discharging thousands of agents from the institution. By January 2020, more than 6,000 agents had been removed. Nevertheless, scandals involving relations between organized crime and police leadership continue to  put the legitimacy of the police into question. 

Even so, Honduras has militarized the fight against organized crime in recent years, granting police surveillance authority to the military in 2011 and creating an elite military police force in 2013. President Hernández’s administration deployed thousands of military police personnel starting in  2014, which led to human rights violations, including kidnapping. 

This militarization continues today. In late-2022, President Castro declared a state of exception and extended it multiple times, despite making little progress against extortion or gangs like the MS13.

As of 2020, the Honduran army had around 23,000 active members within its ranks, which includes  the armed forces, navy, and military police. Under Honduras’ constitution, the Defense Ministry may call on the army to support operations against terrorism, arms, and drug trafficking. However, there have been accusations of collusion between senior officials and criminal groups.

Judicial System

Honduras’ highest judicial body is the Supreme Court of Justice, which includes chambers for constitutional, criminal, and civil cases. Below this are an appeals court, first instance trial courts for criminal and civil cases, and municipal and district-level justices of the peace. Honduras has an Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General) that functions as part of the independent Public Ministry (Ministerio Publico) and handles criminal investigations.

Honduras’ judiciary is widely considered to be weak, ineffective, and highly corrupt. The selection processes for Supreme Court magistrates and Attorney General have both been subject to manipulation by members of Congress, many of whom have been implicated in corruption scandals. The World Justice Project’s 2023 Rule of Law Index ranked Honduras as one of the countries with the most corrupt and least effective criminal justice systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Given the weakness of Honduras’ judiciary, many high-profile drug trafficking suspects have been extradited to the United States.

The internationally-backed MACCIH supported the Attorney General’s Office in its corruption investigations from 2016 until 2019, when Congress voted to end its mandate. Since then, corrupt networks continue to flourish as the country’s political elites have dragged their feet on installing a new anti-corruption commission, despite it having widespread public support.

Prisons

Honduras’ overburdened prison system is overseen by the National Penitentiary Institute (Instituto Nacional Penitenciario- INP) and administered by the National Police and, in some prisons, the armed forces. As of 2020, prisons in Honduras were reportedly operating at 218% capacity, despite the reforms of 2014, which sought to reduce issues with overcrowding. Detainees in pretrial detention represent more than half of the prison population and often face abuses and are denied the rights to due process. 

The country’s overcrowded and under-resourced prisons are affected by riots, homicides, and deplorable conditions. This chronic dysfunction has also allowed inmates to escape. Between October 2019 and August 2020, at least 50 prisoners died during brawls and riots, as well as targeted killings. In June 2023, a group of women allegedly linked to the Barrio 18 gang set fire to a module of the National Women’s Penitentiary for Social Adaptation (Penitenciaría Nacional Femenina de Adaptación Social – PNFAS) in Támara in an attack that killed at least 46 women.

Prisons have become centers of criminal activity for gangs due to authorities’ lack of control in many facilities. The Honduran government tried to counter the gangs’ power within the prisons in 2017 by transferring hundreds of gang members to maximum-security facilities that had recently been constructed, supposedly offering greater controls. Nevertheless, repeated instances of violence within these facilities has made it evident that gang members continue corrupting security guards to pass them contraband like drugs and high-caliber weapons.

In 2024, President Castro announced plans to build a 20,000-capacity “mega-prison” in an effort to crack down on the gangs and overhaul a prison system long plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and extreme violence.