HomeNewsBriefHonduras Destroys 51 'Narco' Airstrips
BRIEF

Honduras Destroys 51 'Narco' Airstrips

HONDURAS / 8 SEP 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

Honduras announced it had destroyed 51 airstrips used for drug trafficking flights in recent months, underscoring the country's importance as a transhipment point for cocaine flights coming from South America.

Honduran Defense Minister Marlon Pascua said government forces had destroyed the clandestine landing strips used for drug trafficking flights over the last few months. Forty of the airfields were located in the largely indigenous zone of La Mosquitia, Gracias a Dios province, and the remaining 11 in the department of Olancho, reported La Tribuna.

Pascua did not provide details on the time frame of the operations though praised the US for their help in carrying them out.

In operations carried out in March, 62 landing strips were destroyed, the majority of them located in Olancho.

InSight Crime Analysis

According to the US State Department, up to 79 percent of all cocaine smuggling flights from South America pass through Honduras with the La Mosquitia region singled out by the US as being a particular concern due to its use as a primary landing zone for traffickers. The region is favored by gangs due to its underdevelopment and lack of state presence, with much of the area covered in dense rainforest. It also provides an ideal jump-off point for cocaine to then be shipped along the coast using boats.

Honduras at the moment does not have its own radar system to track drug flights, leaving them heavily reliant on US tracking operations in the country and the destruction of air fields as a preventative measure.

It appears, however, that toward the end of August, the Honduran Air Force took interdiction measures into their own hands and shot down a drug flight, something which is currently banned under Honduran law. Since the incident, Air force head Ruiz Pastor Landa has been removed from his post.

---

Click here to send InSight Crime your comments. We also encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, provided that it is attributed to InSight Crime in the byline, with a link to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Click here for more details of how to share our work and please send us an email if you use an article.

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.

Tags

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

COCAINE / 8 FEB 2022

Officials in the United States have revealed that former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández is in fact included on a…

ARGENTINA / 12 SEP 2022

Synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, fentanyl, and ecstasy are reshaping Latin America's drug trade.

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 6 JUL 2021

The future of a controversial highway in Honduras, thought to be a conduit for drug trafficking, remains uncertain as the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…