San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
In a vast operation executed in four departments by authorities of the Public Ministry The alleged leaders of the criminal organization Zapatón, who according to the inquiries of the National Anti-Drug Police Directorate (DNPA) is a cell in the Los Cachiros drug trafficking cartel, were captured yesterday within the Sigma operation.
The arrested Joaquín Meléndez Bonilla and his wife Reina Serrano Meléndez were insured for 46 movable and immovable property which, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, are the product of the laundering of activities derived from illicit drug trafficking.
The structure of the organized crime Zapatón, headed by the Meléndez spouses, managed to amass a fortune greater than the 200 million lempiras.
The actions executed in the departments of Copán, Lempira, Cortés and Yoro directed the Fiscal Unit of Special Operations (OPE-MP) and the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Organized Crime, after two years of research that followed the trail of more than 200 million lampreys.
The first indications of the case were obtained from a series of raids carried out on May 3, 2019 in Santa Rosa de Copán by prosecutors attached to OPE-MP in coordination with the Police Investigation Directorate .
Through field and patrimonial diligences, the Public Ministry identified the constitution of mercantile societies like Zapatón, among others; in the same way, the acquisition of movable and immovable property made by the investigated in this file during the period from 2001 to 2018 was verified.
The Public Ministry and the police forces managed to establish that the defendants constantly transferred assets, all without any economic or legal justification for their procedure.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the lawsuit against the alleged money launderers before the court with national jurisdiction, proceeding with executions in Santa Rosa de Copan and La Entrada, in Copán, La Virtud, in the department of Lempira; Yorito, El Negrito and El Progreso, in the department of Yoro, and Puerto Cortés, San Pedro Sula and Villanueva, in Cortés. The assets insured in the Sigma operation correspond to 27 real estates (residences and land), from two companies and branches and 17 vehicles.
The head of the National Anti-Drug Police Directorate (DNPA), Mario Molina, said that one of the main objectives of the operation was the arrest of the Meléndez spouses, and added that the actions executed against this criminal organization have an international impact especially in the United States and Panama.
“The company called Zapatón is derived from the case of drug trafficking of the late Gustavo Chinchilla and property in Los Cachiros,” said Molina.