Honduras arrests five Syrians bound for US on stolen passports

UPDATE: Syrians arrested at Honduras airport arrived from Costa Rica; being investigated for terrorism links

TEGUCIGALPA, November 19th, 2015 (EFE) Five Syrian citizens were arrested Wednesday at the Toncontin International Airport in Honduras as they were preparing to travel to the United States with stolen Greek passports, Honduran police said.

The passports that the five men presented had been stolen in Greece, police spokesman Anibal Baca said.

“The passports were stolen there. They are not their real names, we’re confirming their identities,” Baca said.

The Syrians, whose identities have not been released, were transferred to a police station “to continue processing,” Baca said.

He added that the five Syrians will be placed at the disposal of the Attorney General’s Office on charges of falsification of documents.

The spokesman for the Honduran inter-agency security force, Santos Nolasco, told reporters that last Friday authorities had arrested another Syrian citizen at Toncontin airport.

That individual also entered Honduras with a false Greek passport and was deported to Syria on Tuesday, Nolasco added without providing further details on the case.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been fleeing Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011, a conflict that has left more than 250,000 people dead and 13 million refugees, according to United Nations figures.