US Courts Hand Down Prison Terms to Major Cocaine Traffickers from Honduras and Mexico

Honduran‑born drug broker Raduan Omar Zamora Mayorga, also known as José Luis Oliva Meza and nicknamed “El Señor de los Cielos,” was sentenced in a Texas federal court to 17 years and five months in prison. Prosecutors said he ran an aerial smuggling operation that moved thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia and Ecuador through Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico to the United States. The court found he used private airstrips and aircraft to land loads of up to 450 kg at remote sites in Honduras before the shipments entered the U.S. market.

Mexican national Jesús Rauda‑Ávila received a 14‑year sentence in a U.S. federal court for his role in a network that shipped roughly 1,900 kg of cocaine into the United States. Investigators linked him to a trafficking organization allegedly led by Marisela Flores‑Torruco, known as “La Dama de Hierro,” with ties to the Sinaloa cartel. Rauda‑Ávila coordinated logistics, drivers and vehicles for multiple cocaine shipments between 2016 and 2017, including seizures of 971 kg in April 2017 and 500 kg in May 2017. The case involved cooperation among U.S., Colombian, Panamanian, Mexican and Guatemalan law‑enforcement agencies.