HomeNewsAnalysisAn Arrest in Florida Could Mean Trouble in Honduras
ANALYSIS

An Arrest in Florida Could Mean Trouble in Honduras

CACHIROS / 4 AUG 2014 BY STEVEN DUDLEY EN

The recent arrest of a member of an alleged Honduran drug trafficking family in Florida is another subtle sign that there is a changing of the guard happening in Honduras.

Digna Valle Valle was arrested July 20, and is being held in a Ft. Lauderdale jail, US Federal authorities told InSight Crime.

Valle's lawyers in the United States did not respond to an inquiry about the circumstances of her arrest, but a December 2013 indictment that was unsealed just following her capture says Valle and her brothers Miguel Arnulfo and Luis Alfonso Valle Valle, along with another man identified as Gerson Stanley Ortega Valle, illegally conspired to traffic cocaine from or through Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico to the United States between 2009 and November 2013.

SEE ALSO: Valle Family Profile

The arrest has not been reported in the Honduras press, although the Valle family is identified by local and foreign investigators as one of the largest drug transport organizations in the country. US authorities did not comment on the arrest or the pending case against Digna Valle, which is set to go to court on September 8.

But investigators, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Valle is a major part of the organization, coordinating cocaine shipments north and money transfers south.

InSight Crime Analysis

The Valle family is thought to do a lot of cocaine trafficking, so if the family's other operators are pushed out of the game, the shifts could make for a more chaotic underworld in Honduras.

Estimates vary, but the group is believed to transport between 5 and 20 tons a month through Honduras. Assuming they charge at least $1,500 per kilo moved through their territory, the shipments would net the organization up to $360 million per year, a vast war chest that makes them one of the most formidable organizations in Central America.  

The Valle family has grown in stature since the US Treasury set their sights on Honduras' other major transport family, the Rivera Maradiaga family, last year. Known as the Cachiros, the Rivera Maradiaga family operates from the northeastern coastline of the country, while the Valle family operates from Copan on the western edge along the border with Guatemala. Both families are thought to work mostly for Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, although they may supply other large criminal groups as well and Cachiros have been linked to Colombia's Rastrojos.

In September 2013, Honduras authorities seized numerous properties, businesses and bank accounts allegedly belonging to the Cachiros. But there are no known charges against anyone in the Rivera Maradiaga family in Honduras or the United States.

SEE ALSO: Honduras News and Profiles

The same cannot be said for the Valle family, however, which has a US indictment hanging over them. And the capture of Digna could signal that the noose is tightening on one of the region's foremost transporter groups.

The arrest of Digna also came just days before the seizure of at least a dozen properties belonging to the Matta Ballesteros family. The family patron, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, was a legendary drug trafficker from Honduras whose organization became a bridge between Colombian and Mexican traffickers.

Before US Marshals seized and extracted him from Honduras in 1988, then formally arrested him for aiding in the 1985-murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent in Mexico, he had set up numerous businesses in Honduras and had bought large tracks of land, particularly in the Olancho province in Honduras.

It appears that some of these properties were the ones seized. However, Matta Ballesteros' son, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros Waldurraga, responded to the seizures by questioning the “morality” of the government and claiming some of the properties were inherited from his grandparents and some were obtained in 2009 and 2010, long after what he called the "kidnapping" of his father by US authorities.

“If they want to rob me, go ahead and rob me,” he was quoted in La Tribuna as saying.

There have been persistent rumors about the Matta Ballesteros family's continued involvement in drug trafficking, although this is the first known action the Honduran government has taken against the family or its properties.

There are still no known charges against any member of any of these prominent underworld families in Honduras. But given the recent actions against the Valle family, there is every reason to believe members of the Matta Ballesteros and the Rivera Maradiaga families could face indictments in the US very soon.

The actions against Valle and Matta Ballesteros families could also mean the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez is turning a page in its fight against large transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). The TCOs are thought to be behind much of the violence that makes Honduras one of the most homicidal countries in the world. Hernandez has already distinguished himself by extraditing the first alleged Honduran criminal in a century. And last month, authorities arrested and charged a mayor with running his own criminal operation. 

However, the Hernandez administration needs to be mindful that removing these large players may upset the underworld, causing at least a short-term spike in violence as it has in places like Mexico. In fact, this appears to be happening already in San Pedro Sula where a battle amongst criminal organizations has left dozens dead in recent months, many of them Mexican.

If the Honduras government continues its foray into the uncharted territory of seizing properties of alleged traffickers while the US prepares indictments against them, expect chaos in hotspots like San Pedro Sula to continue and perhaps worsen.

The research presented in this article is, in part, the result of a project funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Its content is not necessarily a reflection of the positions of the IDRC. The ideas, thoughts and opinions contained in this document are those of the author or authors.

IDRC logo blue full name

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

ELITES AND CRIME / 11 NOV 2022

The Venezuelan government has placed and rogue mining gangs in its crosshairs, as the military is deployed in Bolívar.

AUC / 28 OCT 2021

Accused paramilitary drug lord Guillermo León Acevedo, alias "Memo Fantasma," will remain in a high-security Colombian prison, where he has…

AUC / 26 JUN 2022

The former paramilitary commander and drug lord, alias “Memo Fantasma,” may walk out of prison in Colombia on June 28.

About InSight Crime

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…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…