Honduras police arrest gang members in nationwide security crackdown

Honduran authorities have conducted extensive security operations across 18 departments, resulting in multiple arrests linked to organized crime. In a major crackdown, the National Police deployed 134 operational points and executed over 20 raids in areas including Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.

Among the arrests are three individuals charged under a new legal framework for terrorist association. Two suspects, identified by the aliases ‘Escalador’ and ‘Kike’, are alleged members of Pandilla 18 and were apprehended in Cantarranas. A third suspect, known as ‘La Patrona’, is allegedly linked to the MS-13 gang and was detained in Ojojona.

In a separate development, a judge ordered the judicial detention of Keynner Eduardo Santos Meza for the murder of Darwin Sady Aguilar Centeno, a member of the LGBTQ+ community known as Gisell Aguilar. Investigators used surveillance footage to reconstruct the March 2026 crime, in which the victim was allegedly strangled inside a vehicle before the body was abandoned in Tegucigalpa.