Honduran officials have begun investigating possible Los Cachiros cartel contracts with government companies in the 2010-2014 period, allegedly to launder narcotics assets, as a witness reported in a New York court.
The Public Ministry explained in a statement that four teams of the Office of the Prosecutor for Transparency and Fight against Corruption and the Technical Agency for Police Investigation (ATIC) carry out an “inspection and abduction of documents referring to the contracts signed by the government with the companies” of Los Cachiros.
This action is intended to process what was declared in the Court of New York by Mr. Davis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, leader of Los Cachiros, who stated that the [cartel’s] companies had business with the previous government (2010-2014)”
said the prosecution.
Rivera, former leader of the Los Cachiros cartel that was turned over to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in December 2015, testified on March 6th before a New York court in the context of the case against Fabio Lobo, son of former President Porfirio Lobo, accused of conspiring to send cocaine to the United States.
For more than three and a half hours of testimony, Rivera involved former President Porfirio Lobo and his government in actions to help transport tons of drugs and said state-owned companies lent themselves to sign contracts in exchange for bribes to help Los Cachiros laundering money from drug trafficking.
All of the signatories have rejected the allegations. Porfirio Lobo sent a letter to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and agreed to be investigated.
The prosecutor’s office announced that investigations of alleged contracts have begun in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Services (INSEP), Fondo Vial, Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE), Institute of Community Development, Water and Sanitation and Honduran Institute of Geology And Minas (INHGEOMIN).