Honduras' former national police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla, who is sought by the United States for drug trafficking, was detained Wednesday, authorities said.
"'El Tigre' Bonilla was captured," police spokeswoman Rebeca Martinez told AFP, using his nickname and stating that he was arrested by police special forces at a tollbooth.
Bonilla, who was chief of police from 2012 to 2013, had been named as a "co-conspirator" during the US drug trafficking trial of Tony Hernandez, the brother of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Bonilla's arrest comes only three weeks after that of the former president, who is also sought by American authorities for drug trafficking.
The 53-year-old ex-leader, who left office after eight years on January 27, is accused of having facilitated the smuggling of some 500 tons of drugs -- mainly from Colombia and Venezuela -- to the United States via Honduras since 2004.
In turn, he allegedly received "millions of dollars in bribes... from multiple narcotrafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico and other places," according to a document from the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa.
The ex-president's brother, a former Honduran congressman, was given a life sentence in the United States in March 2021.
Washington requested on February 14 that Juan Orlando Hernandez, also named a "co-conspirator" in his brother's case, be extradited to the United States to face charges. The former president was arrested and placed in a prison at the Special Forces headquarters, in the east of the capital Tegucigalpa, but has requested house arrest while the legal process works out.
© Agence France-Presse
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