The Montes Bobadilla clan, the “dangerous” family of Honduran drug traffickers for which the US offers US$15 million

USA has put a price on one of the most powerful families in Honduras.

The State Department announced on Monday a reward of up to US$15 million (5 million each) for information leading to the capture of Herlinda Bobadilla and his sons Tito and Juan Carlos Montes, accused of being leaders of a powerful drug trafficking group that bears their surnames.

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The Montes Bobadilla cartelone of the largest in Honduras, was created in the 1990s and is credited with controlling an important area in the Honduran Caribbean and trafficking from there to Central America, Mexico and the United States.

“It is a family organization that operates in the Department of Colón, Honduras, located on the northeast coast (…). The coastal operations base allows the group to receive air and sea shipments of cocaine from Colombia and/or other South American countries of origin , which are ultimately destined for the United States,” court documents indicate.

According to the accusation, the clan incurs “in violence and public corruption to promote its drug trafficking operations.”

The State Department assured that the payment of the reward is due to the fact that the “leadership” of the woman and her children has progressed “significantly” since her previous boss, Noé Montes Bobadilla, also Herlinda’s son, was arrested in 2017.

Noé Montes Bobadilla was captured and deported to the United States, where he was brought to trial in 2019 along with another of his collaborators. He was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

Honduran media point out that the fate of the mother and brothers, who remained at the head of the group, has been a mystery since the US requested the extradition of the three in September 2016.

The Honduran Attorney General’s Office announced in 2017 the confiscation of 40 properties allegedly belonging to the clan, based on accusations of money laundering. However, nothing has been known about its members.

“Juan Carlos Montes Bobadilla, Herlinda Bobadilla and Tito Montes Bobadilla are still at large. They are believed to be armed and dangerous,” the State Department said.

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Since 1986, the US has offered rewards of more than $135 million for information leading to the capture of suspected drug traffickers, leading to the extradition of at least 75 capos, according to official data.

a clan from the caribbean

Honduran media reports indicate that the Monte Bobadilla clan was created by Pedro Garcia Montesa Honduran who was the head of payments of the Cali cartelone of the most important drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.

According to official reports from the authorities of that last country, García Montes, who became a Colombian national, worked for decades for the Cali criminal group and created a base in Honduras for the transfer of drugs to the rest of the region and to the United States. .

He was arrested in 2001 and accused of money laundering, but was released shortly after and returned to Colombia.

The Honduran government confiscated several of his properties in the country at the time, although a judge returned them to relatives in 2007.

García Montes was killed in Cartagena while he was walking, but according to the Honduran media Proceso Digital, by then he had already left the business in less than his cousin Alex Adam Montes Bobadillawho was allegedly “in charge of coordinating the speedboats, laundering money, and organizing the transportation of drugs to the north.”

Noé Montes Bobadilla was arrested in 2017. (AFP).

Reports from the Honduran Public Ministry indicate that it is then that Juan Carlos, Alejandro and Noé Montes Bobadilla, and a cousin of these, Herlinda Ramos Bobadilla, joined the cartel’s work.

Alex Adán was arrested and convicted, but later, armed men released him while he was serving a house arrest measure (in a controversial judicial decision that later brought the same judge who authorized it to court).

After his death in November 2014, the business was left in the hands of Noé Montes Bobadilla, who continued to expand the influence of the cartel until his arrest.

According to research from InSight CrimeIn 2015, the Montes Bobadilla family assumed control of the criminal operations of the drug-trafficking clan of The Cachiroswhose two main leaders surrendered to US authorities that year.

AFP.

The criminal investigation organization estimates that the profits that this other clan received and that passed into the hands of the Monte Bobadilla is close to US$1,000 million.

According to documents from the Eastern District Court of Virginia, the Montes Bobadilla cartel had profits of more than US$50 million between 2008 and 2015 as a result of the transfer of drugs to Central America and the Caribbean.

As alleged during the trial of Noé Montes, the family is in charge of receiving the cocaine from South American countries to later be transported by land, air or water to Guatemala and then delivered to Mexican cartels for shipment to the United States.

The announcement of the reward for the capture of the members of the Montes Bobadilla clan takes place a few weeks after the US extradited the former president John Orlando Hernandezalso accused of drug trafficking.

Source: Elcomercio