Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said on Wednesday that an increasing number of drug trafficking flights are landing in his country, having come from Venezuela. The minister said that between 250 and 300 drug trafficking routes from Venezuela had been detected.
“The majority of the routes leave from zones in Venezuela, with airplanes displaying that country’s flag. It’s a situation that we haven’t seen for many years, but in the last two years these type of flights have increased,” Alvarez alleges.
Alvarez did not cite the source of this information.
The Honduran official said that his country was a logistical stopover for drug trafficking, adding that trafficking to the Central American nation has increased due to infrastructure development on its Atlantic coast.
The minister met with Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva to discuss the agreement signed by the two nations on Monday to share intelligence on drug trafficking, kidnapping and organized crime.
The officials discussed how to manage intelligence efficiently so that they can tackle drug trafficking networks which are now operating in collusion with air traffic controllers, a development they learned of from the success of the recent international anti-narcotics operation “Frontiers.”
The Frontiers operation confirmed suspicions that Honduras has become a stop-over point for drug traffickers moving Colombian cocaine to Mexico.
Operation Frontiers led to the arrests of 21 traffickers also wanted for extradition to the U.S. This was the biggest U.S.-Colombia anti-drug operation since Operation “Milienio” in 1999.
National Police Commissioner Oscar Naranjo said that the authorities will reveal more information on the operation in the next few days.