Honduran nat'l police charged with US drug trafficking

By Maria Paz Salas

SANTIAGO, Chile (AA) – Six members of the Honduran national police were charged Wednesday in the U.S., accused of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

All of the defendants were charged in absentia.

The charges come after Fabio Lobo, the son of the former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, pleaded guilty in a related case. His sentence will be announced in September.

The younger Lobo intended to profit from a percentage of the benefits of the illicit drug trade in Honduras.

According to prosecutors, the defendants agreed to ensure the passage of illicit drugs from Mexican drug cartels through Honduras into the U.S.

Payments for one massive shipment of cocaine that would net $1 million in profits, Lobo believed, were to come from Mexican drug traffickers who were in fact undercover U.S. agents.

The U.S. prosecutor said the drug operations were conducted through the bribery of public officials and leaked information about security controls.

The drugs was first obtained from Colombia and Venezuela through different shipping routes and then transported to Guatemala, to be later sent to the U.S.

The charges come one month after Honduras suspended 30 deputy police commissioners after a government commission revealed alleged links to organized crime and an association with drug traffickers.

Honduran President Juan Carlos Hernandez created the commission in April, after corruption was declared a national emergency.

Porfirio Lobo ruled Honduras between 2010 and 2014 with a promise to fight organized crime.