HomeNewsAnalysisBrothers' Arrest Displays History of Narco-Politics in Honduras Drug Corridor
ANALYSIS

Brothers' Arrest Displays History of Narco-Politics in Honduras Drug Corridor

COCAINE / 6 NOV 2019 BY HÉCTOR SILVA ÁVALOS EN

Two brothers -- longtime political powerbrokers in a northeastern region of Honduras that is a major maritime and aerial drug route -- have been arrested in a case that exposes further ties between the country’s traffickers and politicians.

Roberto and Seth Paisano Wood were taken in a joint operation between the Attorney General’s Office and anti-drug authorities in northern Honduras, La Prensa reported. The operation, according to the Attorney General’s Office, stemmed from an investigation into traffickers based in Gracias a Dios department -- which lies along the country’s Atlantic coast and is a hotspot for cocaine smuggling.

The brothers face money laundering charges and have been jailed while the investigation continues. Authorities also seized nine properties, five companies and nine boats in the operation, but it was unclear whether the assets belonged to the brothers.

The brothers are part of a powerful political family in Gracias a Dios. Roberto has long been an operator in the National Party, while Seth was a congressman for the Liberal Party.

SEE ALSO: Honduras News and Profile

Gracias a Dios is part of La Mosquitia, a region of dense tropical forest in northeast Honduras that has served as a major cocaine smuggling pipeline for the past two decades.

The investigation into the region’s network of traffickers and politicians began in 2014, when the Honduran army deployed an inter-institutional unit to La Mosquitia to stop cocaine smuggling and perform intelligence operations, with the assistance of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The operations led to the arrests of Atlantic Cartel leader Wilter Neptalí Blanco, and later his right-hand man José Emilio Arrechavala. Arrechavala was the head of a family clan with links to the Paisano Wood brothers, according to a Honduran navy official and former prosecutor consulted by InSight Crime who participated in operations in La Mosquitia between 2014 and 2016.

Blanco was arrested in Costa Rica in 2016 and extradited to the United States, where he later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges. It was during the investigation into Blanco that the Honduran president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, was first named as a person of interest in a major drug trafficking investigation. Hernández was convicted in a US court in October on drug trafficking charges.

InSight Crime Analysis

The recent money laundering charges, documents from investigations dating back to 2014 -- some of which InSight Crime had access to -- and interviews conducted in La Mosquitia and Tegucigalpa all indicate that the Paisano Wood brothers are likely part of an extensive organized crime network that has controlled cocaine trafficking in this region of Honduras since the early 2000s.

The northern part of Gracias a Dios borders the Caribbean. Its remote coasts and small islands are home to both small-scale and industrial fishing, which provide the perfect cover for the movement of cocaine to the Mexican and Guatemalan coasts.

SEE ALSO: Is Honduras Losing the Fight Against Aerial Drug Trafficking?

The western part of Gracias a Dios borders Colón and Olancho departments, long dominated by the Cachiros drug trafficking clan. The region’s jungles and mountains have also served as cover for clandestine airstrips for drug flights.

This corner of northeastern Honduras has been one of the most important pieces in the drug trafficking landscape during the last two decades. In 2011, about 60 percent of the drugs sourced in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador were smuggled along the shores of La Mosquitia or through the mountains of Olancho, according to DEA maps published by the US State Department.

The groups that controlled portions of the drug route included the Chachiros, the Amador in Olancho, and the Atlantic Cartel in La Mosquitia. They worked like a federation, each respecting the other’s territory. In all of these regions, it was essential to have local political powerbrokers facilitating the movement of drugs.

In La Mosquitia, according to investigations, the relationship between drug trafficking and political power was through party heads like the Paisano Wood brothers.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CONTRABAND / 6 JUL 2023

Illegal mining in Venezuela's Yapacana National Park has produced a parallel contraband economy to grow. And state actors know all…

CARIBBEAN / 18 FEB 2022

Dominican authorities recently intercepted a cocaine-laden speedboat destined for Puerto Rico – the latest in a series of maritime seizures…

ELITES AND CRIME / 11 APR 2022

Elements of the Venezuelan underworld, whether drug cartels, street gangs or illegal mining groups, have hit upon a unique way…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…