Active Honduran Police Commissioner With Ties to U.S. Drug Cases Arrested for Money Laundering
/This morning, Hondurans woke up to the news that police commissioner Leonel Luciano Sauceda Guifarro and his wife, Patricia Sbeltana Estrada Pacheco, had been arrested in Tegucigalpa.
A large police and military operation raided their Tegucigalpa-based home this morning and will conduct a “series of seizures of property illicitly obtained, 8 houses, 2 vehicles, 23 bank accounts, all properties of the accused” says the communiqué published by the Honduran Prosecutor’s Office.
Police commissioner Leonel Sauceda (on the couch) being arrested inside his home this morning. Photo by El Heraldo.
“Commissioner General Sauceda Guifarro, in a period of eleven years (2006 – 2018) cannot explain the origin of 13,801,838.35 Lps [$563,000 USD] that involves 13 bank accounts in his name.”
At the time of writing, the police commissioner and his wife were being taken to police facilities in Tegucigalpa. They will appear before a judge over the next 48 hours.
Connections to U.S. Drug Cases: A Small Narco World in Honduras
This morning’s arrest has connections to drug cases in U.S. federal courts, specifically, the February 2016 extradition of Honduran drug trafficker, Juan Carlos Arbizú.
In June 2016, in an internal police document, the Director of the National Police Felix Villanueva Mejia was informed that Arbizú told a Police Commissioner - who was present when Arbizú was being escorted onto a plane to be handed over to U.S. authorities – that Arbizú had said out loud in the moment: “tell Sauceda that I’ll be waiting for him over there [in the U.S.] – I remember when he brought the bags.”
According to Honduran media ConfidentialHN, “Leonel Sauceda, had received bags with money obtained through illicit activities.” Arbizu’s comment may have been retaliation for Sauceda’s role of announcing Arbizú’s arrest to the Honduran press in his position as the Honduran Police spokesperson. They could even have been business associates.
A U.S. federal court sentenced Arbizú in 2017 for his involvement in large-scale drug trafficking,. Among his collaborators are the Los Cachiros and Valle Valle cartels –both business associates of President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s brother, Tony Hernandez.
Cleaning up the National Police?
Just ten days ago on January 30, Leonel Sauceda was promoted to police commissioner - one of the highest positions in the Honduran National Police.
Despite the April 2016 creation of the U.S.-funded Special Commission for the Cleanup and Transformation of the Honduran National Police (CEDTPN), Sauceda and other police believed to be involved in criminal activities, remain active and are promoted inside the institution. Sauceda has held various important positions inside the Honduran police since 1992, including Director of Human Resources, Director of the National Transit Police, Head of Public Relations, and Head of the Police in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa.
Two public figures that represent Honduran “civil society” are involved in the CEDTPN including representatives of the U.S.-funded Association for a More Justice Society (ASJ). Up until last year, ASJ received over half of their total budget in Honduras from different agencies of the U.S. government.
To make the matters of cleaning up the police even more scandalous, police commissioner Sauceda has appointed César Bonilla as his attorney. Bonilla is the former Director of the extinct Directorate for the Investigation and Evaluation of the Police Career (DIECP) which was created in 2011 to “to evaluate police performance and remove officers implicated in corruption and criminal activity, including human rights abuses.” Apparently DIECP’s inevitable failure later led to the creation of the CEDTPN.
Other Scandals Involving Active Members of the Police in Narco Cases
Public scandals highlighting the failure of the Special Commission continue to surface. In November 2019, Honduran media reported that at least four active and inactive police officers were involved in the murder of Honduran journalist Angel Alfredo Villatoro in 2012.
A group of police officers were contracted by Los Cachiros drug cartel on behalf of an unnamed wealthy businessman in San Pedro Sula to kill the well-known journalist. Allegedly, Villatoro obtained the businessman’s iPad containing sensitive information, causing the businessman to panic in fear that Villatoro would publish the information found on the device.
Villatoro was then killed and silenced. A 2012 Inspector General report detailed the circumstances around Villatoro’s death including that before his disappearance and violent murder, the journalist was taken to the office of the National Direction of Special Investigation Services and later, to the place where his body was found.
Honduran media reported that the 2012 Inspector General report had been given to the Direction of Disciplinary Issues of the National Police (DIDADPOL) and to members of the Special Commission to Clean-up the National Police.
Despite the existence of the report, at least four of the police officers involved in the disappearance and brutal murder of Villatoro, are still active in the Honduran National Police.
Going Up The Chain of Command
Many are speculating the reasons behind today’s arrest of the police commissioner.
Sauceda is believed to be close to the former Minister of Security and Presidential candidate for the National Party, Oscar Alvarez and the current mayor of San Pedro Sula, Armando Calidonio. In April 2019, Calidonio was detained in the Houston airport by U.S. migration authorities and later released. It is widely speculated in Honduras that Calidonio’s temporary detention is related to drug-trafficking investigations in U.S. federal courts.
Sauceda’s arrest may be part of a cover-up or an effort to silence him, particularly if he has information about high-level government involvement in drug trafficking.
It is possible that his arrest this morning may also be a Honduran government strategy to initiate criminal proceedings against him in Honduras, in order to prevent his extradition to the United States. The Honduras-U.S. extradition law specifically prevents extradition to the U.S. if a Honduran individual has pending criminal accusations in Honduras.
This strategy is believed to have prevented the extradition of former mayor Arnaldo Urbina Soto, currently serving 36 years in a normal – not maximum-security – Honduran prison for money laundering. The Urbina Soto family has close political and business ties to Tony Hernandez and President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Interesting, Urbina is known to “run the prison” in the city of El Progreso where he has internet access, unlimited visits, and is able to leave his cell whenever he wants. While he serves jail time in Honduras, he is protected from extradition and U.S. court proceedings.