Honduras Seizes Coke Bound for US
The Honduran Navy seized 10 kg of coke aboard the ship "Freedom", in international waters 120 miles north of Port Manzanillo, Panama, due to reach US ports next week.

The ship, crew and drugs, hidden in small packages in several water tanks, were to be ferried to Roatan, on the Honduran Caribbean, and then to the US and Grand Caiman.

The ship sailed from Guanaja Island on October 31st ostensibly to fish but the five-member crew, unidentified for security reasons, was under close surveillance for suspected trafficking.

Experts said smugglers consider Honduras a suitable route because of looser customs regulations and its excellent geographic location for sending drugs to the US, where there is more demand and better prices.

Honduras has reported increased consumption of coke and crack, in line with the raising rate of crime-related violence.

An official 2004 report calculates that 100 tons of coke enter national territory annually from Colombia, but authorities are only able to confiscate one-tenth.

Annual income for Honduran traffickers is calculated at 120 million dollars (nearly 3,000 dollars per kilo), but a large amount of that is used to pay services for groups from Guatemala and Mexico.

Crime-fighting institutions believe that the tons of drugs, choppers and speedboats seized and many traffickers jailed are all just the tip of the iceberg of the annual drug volume going through Honduras.