Honduras arrests mayor accused of trafficking cocaine to US

A mayor in Honduras was arrested on Sunday on charges of working with drug cartels to smuggle 90 tons of cocaine to the US by boat and plane.

Mayor Wilmer Manolo Wood of Brus Laguna, in the remote Mosquitia region that borders Nicaragua, was taken into custody, said Jorge Galindo, a spokesperson for the Honduran prosecutors' office. He is accused of working with the cartels Los Piningos, Los Yanez and Los Amador.

Neither Wood nor his lawyers were immediately available for comment.

Galindo said independently of the three cartels, Wood personally received 30 tons of cocaine and moved it through Honduras so it could be transported to the US.

Authorities believe Wood became involved in drug trafficking more than 15 years ago and began running operations on his own account eight years ago.

The public ministry said Wood was involved in the docking of 15 boats that came from Colombia and passed through Honduras on their way to the US.

The arrest in La Ceiba, a city in northern Honduras, came  during raids and inspections along the Atlantic coast.

Local authorities believe Mexican drug cartels supplying the US transport cocaine through Central America and Mexico after it is carried from Colombia by boat or plane to the Mosquitia region and other parts of Honduras' Atlantic coast.

Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez was extradited to the US on drugs and weapons charges last year.

Current President Xiomara Castro is pushing a crackdown on crime and has repeatedly extended emergency powers across the country.