HomeNewsBriefCompleting Chapter, Honduras Extradites Valle Brothers to US
BRIEF

Completing Chapter, Honduras Extradites Valle Brothers to US

CACHIROS / 19 DEC 2014 BY DAVID GAGNE EN

Two leaders of the notorious Valle Valle family now find themselves in US custody, extradited from Honduras a little over two months after their capture. The question now is what about the other top-level traffickers still at large?

On December 18, the brothers Miguel Arnulfo and Luis Alonso Valle Valle were flown to the US and were being held in Virginia, reported Tiempo. Prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida await the brothers -- the leaders of a clan that was once responsible for moving upwards of 10 tons of cocaine through this country per month -- who face charges of trafficking illicit substances to the United States.

The brothers were captured in the country's western border province of Copan in a joint operation involving Honduran special forces, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Guatemalan authorities.

SEE ALSO: Valles Profile

Honduras' Supreme Court indicated Jose Inocente Valle Valle, the third brother in the drug clan who was also captured in early October, is set to be extradited in 2015, reported La Prensa.

The Valle brothers' extradition brings the total number of Hondurans sent to the United States on drug trafficking charges this year to four. The others were Carlos "El Negro" Lobo in May and Juving Alexander Suazo Peralta in October.

InSight Crime Analysis

The extradition of the Valle brothers closes a chapter on a group that six months ago was at the top of the criminal food chain in Honduras. But the quick turnaround between the capture and extradition of the Valle brothers raises a question as well: why hasn't the government captured other high-level traffickers such as the Cachiros, Jose Miguel "Chepe" Handal, and Alexander Ardon? 

The answer might be simple: there are no known charges against any of them in the United States or Honduras.

The notion is stupefying when presented with the traffickers' profiles. The Cachiros, which is the nickname of the Rivera Maradiaga clan, was placed on the US Kingpin list over a year ago by the US Treasury and had an estimated $500 million in assets seized in September 2013. At its height, it was thought to move between 5 and 10 tons of cocaine through Honduras per month.

SEE ALSO: Cachiros News and Profile

"Chepe Handal" was put on the Kingpin list in April 2013 for running a transport group similar to that of the Cachiros. The former mayor of El Paraiso, Copan, Alexander Ardon -- believed to be the namesake of the "Cartel de Alex," which reportedly had strong ties to the Valles -- is considered a large trafficker in his own right and a major ally of the Sinaloa Cartel.

There is, of course, the strong belief that the US is preparing to file charges against these criminal figures or has sealed the indictments related to them. In the meantime, there are only questions and idle security forces awaiting orders. 

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

ARGENTINA / 8 FEB 2023

InSight Crime's 2022 Homicide Round-Up covers more countries than ever before, with a major expansion into nations of the Caribbean.

HONDURAS / 20 APR 2022

Juan Orlando Hernández, Honduras’ former president, is facing trial on US drug charges after allegations that he received bribes to…

BARRIO 18 / 5 JUN 2023

After six months, the state of exception in Honduras has failed to significantly reduce gang violence and extortion.

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…