Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The mayor of Roatan Bay Islands, Jerry Hynds July, was sent to the First Infantry Battalion after the Criminal Letters Court handed down the measure of judicial detention for the aggravated drug trafficking offense.
Judiciary spokeswoman Lucía Villars told reporters that the four people have appeared today before a judge with national jurisdiction at a hearing of defendants, in which they were charged with the crime of drug trafficking aggravated.
Hynds was sent to the 1st Infantry Battalion, near the Honduran capital, and the other three to the maximum security prison, known as the Hopper, Added.
The mayor and the other people were captured Friday night at Roatan during the confiscation of 2,430 kilos of cocaine that were transported in a cistern carrying water.
Hynds and Efaín Rigoberto Saints were allegedly arrested while escorting the cistern, which was driven by Jorge Reiniery Rosales and Francisco Federico Gómez.
All were arrested in an operation coordinated by the Public Ministry through the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Organized Crime (FESCCO) and the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation (ATIC).
The arrest came after “an investigative work that has been carried out by the ATIC”, with the support of the armed institution and the Military Police of Public Order.
The spokeswoman for the Honduran Supreme Court noted that the detainees will appear on September 2 in an initial hearing, in which the judge will decide whether to issue an act of provisional or final prosecution or dismissal.
Hynds, a former MP in the 2014-2018 period for the opposition Liberal Party, was arrested in 2015 in the United States, where he had an arrest warrant because on his ship was confiscated in 2014 a rifle that was supposed to be transferred to the Roatan Island.