Cortes, Honduras
Honduran authorities have confiscated a total of 858 kilograms of chemicals used to make synthetic drugs in the country’s Caribbean, which arrived hidden in 181 boxes from the United States, an official source reported Friday.
The Honduran National Police said in a press release that the cargo was being transported in a container that entered the National Port Company, in Puerto Cortés, in the Honduran Caribbean.
He noted that according to a preliminary investigation, the chemical was shipped from the United States as “printer ink”.
The seized substance is methyl ethyl ketone, known as 2-butanone, which is banned in Honduras because it is “used illegally in clandestine laboratories to produce cocaine hydrochloride,” added the security agency, saying there are no detainees. this case
The operation was conducted by Special Operations agents from the National Anti-Drug Police Directorate, with the support of the Sanitary Regulation Agency, the Honduras Customs Agency, and the General Directorate of the Merchant Marine.
The special prosecutor against organized crime and technicians from the forensic chemistry laboratory of the Police Investigations Directorate also participated.
This is the first shipment of chemical precursors seized in Honduras by security forces this year.
Honduras territory, mainly the Caribbean, is used by groups of South American drug traffickers who send cocaine shipments to the United States.
Violence caused by drug trafficking and organized crime is one of the biggest problems facing Honduras, which records an average of nine murders every day.
Honduran authorities launched air, sea and land shields in the Caribbean in 2014 to curb drug trafficking from South America.
The air shield was unilaterally imposed by Honduras, while at sea it has the backing of the United States through a coastguard in international waters adjacent to that of the Central American country in the Caribbean. EFE