PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
CURRENT SITUATION OF ORGANIZED CRIME IN
HONDURAS
Gina Antonella Ramos Giron*
I. THE SPECIAL OFFICE AGAINSTORGANIZED CRIME
The special office against organizedcrime was created in July 1999, as a
response to the Honduran’s call for thedevelopment of new modalities to tackle
crime that threatens the internal securityof the country.
In Tegucigalpa, the capital, the main
office is located, but they have created
two more offices against organized crime,
one in the north zone of the country andanother in the south, which are in chargeof handling all the organized crime cases.
All the attorneys have been trained inthese specific areas, such as investigation
methods, prosecution, special legislation,
etc.
This special office has five sections:
1. Section against drugs
This section handles all the cases to
do with drug trafficking, e.g. people
that sell drugs in small amounts, etc.
2. Section against kidnappingThis also handles firearms trafficking
and illegal immigration, where illegal
p eop le pa ss through the c ountry
where their final destination is to get
into the United States.
3. Stolen vehicles section
4. Bank robbery, which has increased in
the last few months in Honduras* Public

Prosecutor,

Department

againstOrganized Crime Public Ministry, Honduras

5. Money laundering section
All these sections hav e spec ial
attorneys, and also investigators thatmanage a ll of the investiga tions.
These investigators come under the
Security Minister and there are two
branches; the uniform police and theinvestigation division, that also havesections with certain specializations
such as organized crime. They help
the attorneys to get all the evidence
that they need for the prosecution of
the cases.
The office itself has an intelligencesection that is in charge of taking theinformation from all the sections andputting it together so they can recognize
the different organized groups. Much of
the time, the same people that are bankrob bers are also kidna ppers and car
thieves. This section helps a lot in solvingcases; they have internet access and they
sha re info rma tion w ith other p olice
departments, and a telephone system
where they can access the telephonecompany system and find out the nameand the address of the ow ner of that
number.
One of the difficulties that we have isthat we have a very small budget, so we
do not have enough cars, not enoughattorneys, at the moment, but we hope in
the near future we will get more help
from the government, and also we work
really closely with other countries too,such as the American Embassy. They
help us a lot in sharing information about
drugs, w ith DEA (Drug Enforcement
Agency) people, with the Immigration

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Department about illegal trafficking of
persons, etc. and with other governments
such as Japan. This kind of course helps a
lo t in the training o f atto rneys andenables them to share information withother countries.
II. ACTUAL SITUATION OF
ORGANIZED CRIME IN HONDURAS
Organized crim e in Honduras has
increased in the last 5 years. We started
having many bank robberies and, for the
first time, ranso m kidnappings.
Automobile theft has always occurred,
but not as much as in the last few years.
Now the criminals have become more
professional and steal cars to commit
other crimes. At present, we only have
two cases of money laundering that are
active in court, because the special law
against drugs covers money laundering
but only that related with drugs. Moneysometimes comes from drug trafficking
and we know that money has notnecessarily come from drugs, it could also
have come from stolen vehicles, bankrobberies etc. The attorneys that work inthe money laundering section right now
are working on a new money laundering
law that will regulate money laundering
crime. We hope this law will be approvedby the national congress very soon.
A. Situation of Drug Trafficking
D rug traf ficking ha s incre ase d in
Honduras in the last years also.
Honduras has a very good geographic
location, having tw o ocea ns and thetrafficking comes from both sides.
In the south of the country we have
trafficking coming from Nicaragua and El
Salvador, that enters the country throughthe borders, most of the time with cocaine
and marijuana hidden in big containers
and small cars. We found a large amountof cocaine of about 30kg in the roof and564

trunk of a small car and more than 100kg
in containers.
In the north of the country we have two
ports that have more active drugtrafficking, the port of La Ceiba on thenorth coast and the port of Roatan in the
Bay Islands. Usually drugs come from
Colombia, because Roatan, as an island,has small docks where any boat can stopand nobody would know about.
In La Ceiba we caught this speedboat
coming from Colombia with more than
2 0 0 k g o f c o c a i n e . W e a r r e s t e d tw oColombians and this has been one of thebiggest loads coming in that way.
Also in the Bay Islands we have thesecruise ships that come from Houston or
Miami, and sometimes the crew of theseships buy cocaine to take back to the U.S.
When I was working there we had several
such cases.
We can imagine that on the north sideof the country people use more drugs,
more than in central and southern areas.
The selling of marijuana and cocaine insmall amounts have become very popularin Honduras lately, we can find a numberof small houses in the middle of the citywhere people come at night to buy two or
three cigarettes of marijuana or 2 or 3
gram s of cocaine. Also in somediscotheques people can find cocaine.
Society is really concerned about thisb e c a u s e w e n e v e r sa w t h is k in d o fsituation before, but we know it is very
common, so as a result, the investigatorsthat work against drugs have more work
to do, trying to close these businesses andsearching houses, and conducting a lot of
undercover investigations.

119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
B. Actual Situation of Kidnappings
S in ce 1 9 9 5 w e s ta r t e d h a v ing a n
increa se d incide nce of this crim e in
Honduras. One of the first kidnappings
for money was when these criminals
kidna p ped the son of a p residential
candidate, he is also a big business man
who use d to be the p resid ent o f thecentral bank. Since we had that case,kidnappings have become very common,
sometimes we finally arrest the people
and get the victim to safety, but in somecases we have not been that lucky and wehave found the victims dead, and thefamily had already paid the amount ofmoney demanded.
Most of the above cases happened inth e no rth z o ne. T he se a r e the mo st
co m plica te d ca se s b e ca use the y a r ecommitted by very well organized groups,that are also the groups that steal cars. In
the west we had a lot of kidnappings also
but most of the time we do not know
about them because the victims families
do not inform the police. They pay themoney for the rescue and the victims areset free. In this area, we had a lot of
farmers that work with coffee so they
have a lot of money, so that is the reason
k i d na p p e r s c h o o s e th is a r e a o f t h ecountry.
The families of the victims now arevery afraid that their relatives might get
killed, so that is why sometimes they
prefer to pa y the money and ask thepolice not to interfere in the negotiationand in the rescue. About 1 month ago we
had a case where they kidnapped a veryrich lady in the city of Tegucigalpa, andher family paid three million six hundred
thousand lempiras (Honduras currency)
to set her free the next morning. The
police did not interfere at all because thefamily asked them not to because theywanted her mother alive.

But in other cases we have found thevictims and rescued them without paying
the money. As you can imagine when we
have this type of case, a lot of people workon it for a long time; uniformed police,
investigators, attorneys, etc.
In 2 000 w e had 26 kidnappings in
Honduras, that is a lot, and in 2001 until
August we have had, at the moment, 18.
Most of them occurred in the north zone
and we have had some cases where thevictims have disappeared and we havenot found them yet.
C. Actual Situation of Firearms
Trafficking
In Honduras we have had firearms
trafficking since we had the war with El
Salvador and the contra of Nicaragua. So
much of the time the guns come from
Nicaragua. In the north zone, close to theborder with Nicaragua, we had theseplaces where Nicaraguan soldiers hide
the guns, and cover them with bombs, so
we have to localize these places, and wea r e w o r k i ng o n g e t ti ng s o m e b o m b
experts to recover those guns. That takes
time, and they have to be very careful.
Firearms trafficking is closely relatedwith d rug traff icking bec a use som e
Central A mericans, (Hondurans,
Nica ra gua ns, e tc.) m a ke de a ls w ith
people from south America and theyexchange the guns for drugs, so this is
another king of organized crime.
Three months ago we had a case wherew e a rr e s te d a L i e ut e n a n t f r o m th e
uniformed police with 88 AK-47 rifles. He
was transporting them from the south to
the north, he was wearing his uniform,
and the investigators arrested him withthe guns. A lso , th e ca r that he w a s
driving had been stolen in Guatemala. As
you can see we have corruption too, andthis is a very dangerous situation for thecountry.

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The problem that we have right now
with this crime is that our law does nottalk to much about gun trafficking, thelegislation only covers cases when guns
are used for terrorism purposes. They can
pay bail and then have to be released. We
are trying to get higher punishments forthese crimes.
Other big ca se s tha t we ha ve ha d
involvegangs,
becausethey
manufactured their own guns, homemade guns. Almost all juveniles that arepart of gangs carry one of these homemade guns, and also commit crimes withthem. We usually make searches in theirhouses, but this is very difficult to control
because they can manufacture more.
Most of the time we do not have many
complaints about these crimes, so theinvestigators have to do a lot of
undercover work to try to identify thesepeople trafficking in firearms.
D. Situation of Illegal Immigration
In Honduras we do not have too manycases of organ or children trafficking.
Most cases that we have is the traffickingof people to the United States. There arevery well organized groups from south
America to Mexico, who traffic people
f ro m S o uth A m e rica a n d pa ss the mthrough Central America to Mexico andth en ent er in to the United Stat es
illegally.
We have had big cases with people
from India and Cuba, but the biggest
problem is with Chinese people. A lot ofChinese enter the country and then try to
get into the United States. We have many
Chinese restaurants, and hotels, where
they keep people, and which are used as
offices. The immigration office has a lot of
work, they go to hotels to inspect
everyday and they always find Chinesethat are living in those hotels, staying

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illegally in Honduras and waiting for theright moment to leave for the UnitedStates. Sometimes they are lucky and get
an American visa, but most of the timethey go by car to Mexico to enter theUnited States.
These Chinese groups are also very
well organized, and they can protect theirpeople a lot. In my office we had a lot ofthese cases related with Chinese gangs
and some of their some members are in
jail. But most of the time we deport themfrom Honduras back to China, because
there is no sense in putting them in jail;they have no family in Honduras and thepeople we need to arrest are the people
that create the procedures and ask themfor money. They provide them with a
Honduran passport so that it is easier forthem to get a visa to enter the UnitedStates.
E. Situation of Bank Robberies
Bank robbery has been a very common
crime in Honduras. Almost every week
we have a bank raid where robbers steal
millions of Lempiras and it is found thatthey are also kidnappers and car thieves.
I n C C T V v id e os o f th e b a nk s, w e
recognize a lot of gangs, and one man that
was arrested fo r kidnapping was
identified in the video of two bank raids.
This is a very serious crime, because
these men are really dangerous and they
do not care if they kill somebody. Anotherp r o b l e m i s t h a t s o m e m a n a ge r s o r
cashiers do not like to testify because
they are afraid of them. The thieves arevery well organized groups and they arevery p rof essio nal. T hese crim es a recommitted all over Honduras, even in thesmall towns, and also on the islands,
where they have speed boats ready toescape. These are the biggest gangs that
we have in Honduras.

119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
F. Situation of Stolen Vehicles
There are a very well organized groups.
First, this crime happened only on thenorth cost and the west, but now it is allover the country. They steal more pick up
trucks and luxury cars. They take them,
most of the time, to Guatemala over theborder in the north and over the bordersof Nica ragua and El S alvador in thesouth. They manufacture false invoices,
registration documents of the vehicle andthe license plates.
Other times they steal the cars andthen use them during a bank robbery or a
kidnapping. Later we find these carsabandoned by the roads. We have a lot of
fancy cars that have been stolen in othercountries, they change the color and thenthey sell them here. We send cars back toother countries from which they havebeen stolen, mostly from El Salvador,
Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The investigators and attorneys thatwork in stolen vehicles are the ones thathave the most work to do, trying to findcars and identifying gangs, the average
number of stolen cars is about 20 cars a
day and we are not that lucky to find allof them. We recover about 50% of them.
G. Situation of Money Laundering
As I m entioned before, money
laundering as a crime in Honduras is only
related to drug trafficking. Before 1993,
money laundering crime did not exist, it
was only mentioned in one article of the
drug law, that was in 1998 when themoney laundering law was created but
only in relation with drug trafficking. The
attorneys that actually work with thatcrime are working on some reforms ofthat law and they are trying to establish
money laundry provisions related to othercrimes such as sto len vehicles,
kidnappings, bank robberies, humantrafficking, etc.

At this moment we only have three big
cases of money laundering, the biggest ofwhich is one of a Colombian organizedcrime group that came to Honduras tolaunder money. Three of the Colombians
began a business selling home appliances
a n d d o m e st ic e l e ct r ic a l go o d s. T h e
investigators began an investigation of
the business, because it was strange thatthese places were not open to the public,
people needed to use a doorbell to get in.
Also, the C olom bian p olice sent the
Honduran investigators information
about them because they found out thatsome drug dealers that were located in
the sea on boats had communication witha cell phone number in Honduras. So westarted an intensive investigation, andfinally found probable cause to present incourt. The business and their houses
were searched and all these people havebeen arrested or have arrest warrants.
During the search, we found about 60
ba nk a ccount b ooks, check vouchers
where they have paid pilots, they had
bought boats, and paid the boat captains,
and there was nothing related to thedomestic electrical goods business. The
judge ordered the arrest warrants andconfiscated about 8, 2001-model luxury
cars, froze all bank accounts and also all
the houses that they were building at a
cost of over 2 million lempiras.
When the investigators were doing theinvestigation they noticed that in someaccounts people received large amounts ofmoney. This money was in the bank for 5days and in the next week all the money
was gone, and the money transfer wasvery often from banks in Honduras toother banks, most of them in Miami, New
York, Panama and Mexico.
The total money that they uncovered
was several million dollars, and further
investigation revealed bank accounts
with other banks in Central, South and

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North America, and even in Spain and
Thailand.
We already know the people that send
and receive money in Colombia and weare working with assistance from thelegal authorities in Colombia.
III. INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUES
According to the criminal procedurelaw, investigators are not allowed tocarry out electronic surveillance. They dothis type of investigation but it is nota llo w e d to b e use d a s e vid e nce . W e
present this but only as an illustration to
the judge. We now have a new law and it
will be implemented by next February.
E le ctronic surveilla nce w ill then b eadmissible as evidence at future trials.
A. Undercover and Electronic
Surveillance Investigation
In drug trafficking investigations, thedetec tives use a lot of un derc overmethods. In the smaller cases they go andbuy the drugs and when the transaction
is done they arrest the people on the spot.
The people and the drugs are presented
in court for trial.
With the bigger cases, undercoverinvestigators
infiltrate
drugorgan ization s usi ng microph on es,
calculators, pencils, etc. A micro video
camera can identify the dealers. They
take part in the negotiations and when
the day and hour is set for the controlled
delivery they arrest the criminals at thatm oment. The und ercover agents areallowed to escape police movement, or
sometimes we arrest the undercoveragent also. Later he and any informants
are then released. To do this type of cases
we, as attorneys, have to talk in advancewith the judge and let him know what isgoing on so we avoid any problem of illicit
evidence.

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B. Investigative Techniques in
Kidnappings
In kidnapping cases we have to use a
lot of peop le and tim e for theinvestigation. Sometimes the case issolved quickly but other times we canspend a lot of time trying to find thevictim.
M uch o f the time w hen w e ha ve akidnapping, two investigators go to thevictim’s house to be there and tell thefamily how they have to act, tell them
about the negotiation and how to ask for
proof that the victim is still alive. The
family can be nervous and confused andforget to ask for proof of life, also how andhow much to offer the kidnappers is
discussed, because we always offer lessthan the amount the kidnappers demand.
Only in cases where the kidnappers do
not want to negotiate will the family
accept the amount demanded. Also thetime that they spend in negotiation helps
the inve stigato rs to try to ge t m ore
information about them, listen to thephone calls and try to locate the place
where they are and also the place wherethe victim is hidden.
We have had cases in which we locatedthe kidnappers, the phone number andtheir location, then we follow them all thetime, because much of the time they go to
the place where the victim is being held,
so in th a t w a y w e ca n d is co v e r t helocation and search in that location to
rescue the victim.
Other wa ys of doing this is at thedelivery moment when we locate theplace where they choose to make thedelivery of the money, and when thefamily goes to leave the money we wait
until the kidnapers pick it up. In someca ses w e wa it until they release thevictim , in other ca ses w e a rrest the
kidnappers at that moment.

119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
C. Other Types of Investigation
In other cases, such as stolen vehicles,
the investigators work most of the timewith informants. They can provide good
information about cars, because every
gang has their own area of operation,
which means that a member of a gangcannot enter and steal a car from anotherarea that does not belong to them.
Also they have a list of all the places
that the car thieves bring the cars tochange the color of different parts, tomake the car look different. Also in theseplaces they change the VIN (Vehicle
Identification Number). Investigators
work with some chemicals which they canapply to reveal the real VIN number.
Th e inv es tigators sh are a lot of
information with other police agencies,
and also with Interpol, and they have alist of a ll the stole n ca rs in Ce ntral
America. When they find a car that they
think that could be stolen, they check it
out on the system and they know if it isstolen or not.

punishment. With drugs, for example, if aperson is found with an amount that is
co n si d e r e d m o r e t ha n w o u ld b e f o r
personal use, then it is considered to be
trafficking and the punishment is 15 to
20 years in jail, plus a 1 to 5 million
lempira fine.
We are trying to make some changes inthat law because sometimes we arrest
people that, for example, sell marijuana
in small amounts and during a search wewill find about 10 to 50 pounds, and mostof the time they are poor people that selldrugs to live. We agree that they should
receive punishment, but 15 years in jail isconsidered too harsh for 10 pounds ofmarijuana and the fine is more than they
can pay. As attorneys, we try to find away to help people, asking them to tell us
about who gave them the drugs, so we cancatch the big players and we offer to talkwith the judge to obtain a more lenientpunishment.

W ith bank robberies it is very
important to make a very good study ofthe crime scene because in that manner
we can know the modus operandi of theg a n g a n d , i n t hi s m a n ne r , p e rh a p s
r e c o g n i z e t h e g a n g . A ls o t he v id e ocameras help a lot in these cases, to show
to the judges, and, most of the time, they
grant the arrest warrants.
IV. LEGISLATIONThe criminal law in Honduras regulate
car crime, kid nappings and bankrobberies. The Congress has improved
the p unishment fo r the se organize dcrimes.
We have a special law against drugs
and money laundering, with very severe569