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The Honduran government seized more cocaine in the first seven months of this year than in the 2019 total, indicating a resurgence of one of Central America’s largest cocaine routes despite border closures and transport restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities say 2,241 kilograms of cocaine were seized between January and July 2020, most not all sending 2,218 kilograms last year, Digital Process reported.
Most seizures took place in La Mosquitia, a jungle region on the Caribbean coast of Honduras that is a cocaine room in a northerly direction. In July, the government of the Gracias a Dios branch, which includes La Mosquitia and Nicaragua, intercepted a ship with 900 kilograms of cocaine and a small plane loaded with 806 kilograms of cocaine.
The region has long noticed the logging of strips of forest to create clandestine runways serving drug aircraft. The sparsely populated city of Brus Laguna in La Mosquitia is a hotbed of this activity, with 18 of the 23 runways destroyed in Honduras this year. the region has also been a focus of drug-related violence.
The region has also noticed an increase in local cocaine production. In August, 3 drug sites were dismantled in the jungle in Colón, another branch on the east coast of Honduras.
If seizures are not the best indicator for measuring drug trafficking, the amount of cocaine that crosses Honduran territory is likely to increase.
This is a significant change from 2015, when drug trafficking in the country was allegedly reduced by 72% after the army and intelligence paints took a step forward and forced traffickers to take routes of choice, according to the authorities. crossing the country, la Prensa reported at the time.
At the time, a senior U. S. military official praised Honduras for his “incredible” efforts, adding President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s willingness to cooperate with U. S. drug operations. The victory was obviously declared prematurely, especially since Hernandez himself was appointed co-conspirator in drug trafficking. cases in the United States, adding his own brother’s. Hernandez denied the charges.
The increase in cocaine production in Colombia in recent years has led the country to become a transport and smuggling hub again. Venezuela has also served as a launching pad for drug theft in Honduras.
A spokesman for the Honduran prosecutor’s office told VICE News that collaborations with the governments of Colombia and the United States have led to the most recent cocaine seizures.
Approximately 4% of cocaine shipments, or approximately tons, arrived in the United States in 2019 first made air or sea calls to Honduras, according to the report of the US State Department’s 2020 International Narcotics Control Strategy. But it’s not the first time
Other Central American countries are experiencing a similar trend. Costa Rica and Panama have recently reported record seizures, Guatemala seized a record 17. 8 tons of cocaine in 2018 and the government has already seized 6. 5 tons of cocaine between January and July this year, adding more than two tons of a narco-jet. 53 suspected drug thefts have already been detected.