88 hectares of coca fields and a cocaine laboratory have been discovered and seized in the mountains of central Honduras, the Central American country’s army said on Sunday.
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This operation in the municipality of Limones in the department of Olancho (centre), about 215 km northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa, was the result of “intelligence work,” the army said in a statement.
More than a million coca plants and four secret laboratories have been spotted in Honduras since the beginning of the year.
In 2022, 4.12 tonnes of cocaine was seized, up from the 11.72 tonnes seized in 2021.
Honduras is a major transit country for Colombian cocaine and other narcotics, destined primarily for the North American market.
The country extradited to the United States in July Herlinda Bobadilla, a 61-year-old suspected gang leader accused of drug trafficking who was arrested in May during a shootout that killed her son.
Also in April, former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez was extradited to the United States and charged with drug trafficking, just over a year after his brother Tony was sentenced to life in prison by a New York court.