Honduran security forces took another step toward dismantling a major narco-trafficking organization by extraditing to the United States alleged drug gang boss Juving Alexander Suazo Peralta, who is also known as “Chancleta.”
Honduran security forces took another step toward dismantling a major narco-trafficking organization by extraditing to the United States alleged drug gang boss Juving Alexander Suazo Peralta, who is also known as “Chancleta.”
Officers with the Special Operations Command (Cobra) of the Honduran National Police along with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents escorted Chancleta to Toncontín National Airport for a flight to Miami. There, the alleged organized crime boss will face federal drug trafficking charges; U.S. federal prosecutors allege Chancleta directed large shipments of cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs into the United States.
He was captured in the Department of Atlántida on September 10 by Honduran National Police, who arrested him while he was driving a pickup truck near the city of La Ceiba along the Caribbean coast.
Security forces suspect Chancleta assumed control of a major drug trafficking group after Carlos Arnoldo Lobo Alemán was captured in March by troops with FUSINA – an elite unit comprised of Army soldiers and National Police agents. They captured Lobo, also known as “El Negro Lobo” and “El Negro”, at a bakery in San Pedro Sula. Honduran security forces believe he’d been hiding in another Central American country and returned to Honduras days before his arrest.
Before he was captured, El Negro Lobo allegedly ran a Honduran drug trafficking gang that works with Colombian organized crime groups, such as Los Mellos de Kasandra. El Negro Lobo also allegedly worked with the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexican transnational criminal organization which traffics drugs into the U.S., Europe, the African continent and other destinations.
In May, Honduran and U.S. law enforcement authorities extradited El Negro Lobo to the United States to face federal drug trafficking chages.
“Lobo’s arrest and extradition to the U.S. has led to the dismantling of an egregious trafficking organization,” said Alysa D. Erichs, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami. “This case highlights the effective collaboration between HSI, DEA and our international law enforcement partners.”
Under Honduran law, Chancleta and El Negro Lobo cannot be tried for crimes committed before 2012. That was the year the Honduran Constitution was changed to legalize the extradition of criminal suspects.
Attorneys for the two alleged drug kingpins can seek plea bargains with U.S. federal prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences than they would receive if they were to go to trial and be convicted.
Honduran security forces took another step toward dismantling a major narco-trafficking organization by extraditing to the United States alleged drug gang boss Juving Alexander Suazo Peralta, who is also known as “Chancleta.”
Officers with the Special Operations Command (Cobra) of the Honduran National Police along with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents escorted Chancleta to Toncontín National Airport for a flight to Miami. There, the alleged organized crime boss will face federal drug trafficking charges; U.S. federal prosecutors allege Chancleta directed large shipments of cocaine and hallucinogenic drugs into the United States.
He was captured in the Department of Atlántida on September 10 by Honduran National Police, who arrested him while he was driving a pickup truck near the city of La Ceiba along the Caribbean coast.
Security forces suspect Chancleta assumed control of a major drug trafficking group after Carlos Arnoldo Lobo Alemán was captured in March by troops with FUSINA – an elite unit comprised of Army soldiers and National Police agents. They captured Lobo, also known as “El Negro Lobo” and “El Negro”, at a bakery in San Pedro Sula. Honduran security forces believe he’d been hiding in another Central American country and returned to Honduras days before his arrest.
Before he was captured, El Negro Lobo allegedly ran a Honduran drug trafficking gang that works with Colombian organized crime groups, such as Los Mellos de Kasandra. El Negro Lobo also allegedly worked with the Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexican transnational criminal organization which traffics drugs into the U.S., Europe, the African continent and other destinations.
In May, Honduran and U.S. law enforcement authorities extradited El Negro Lobo to the United States to face federal drug trafficking chages.
“Lobo’s arrest and extradition to the U.S. has led to the dismantling of an egregious trafficking organization,” said Alysa D. Erichs, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami. “This case highlights the effective collaboration between HSI, DEA and our international law enforcement partners.”
Under Honduran law, Chancleta and El Negro Lobo cannot be tried for crimes committed before 2012. That was the year the Honduran Constitution was changed to legalize the extradition of criminal suspects.
Attorneys for the two alleged drug kingpins can seek plea bargains with U.S. federal prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences than they would receive if they were to go to trial and be convicted.