Honduras police chief helped drug cartel move a tonne of cocaine worth $20 million - Report

A secret report alleges that one of the top brass of the Honduras police may have been involved in smuggling drugs for the cartel. According to the information made available to the Associated Press, the newly-appointed national police chief Jose David Aguilar Moran instructed officers to hold back on raid involving close to a tonne of cocaine.

The security report claims that Moran — who was sworn in to his new position last week — called off a 2013 police raid on a truck that was allegedly packed with cocaine. The drugs, which would have had a street value of around $20m (£14.1m), were instead given a police escort to the home of convicted drug trafficker Wilter Blanco.

According to excerpts from the documents, the case involved the seizure of the truck of drugs and detention of the police officer who was safeguarding it.

"Inspector Giron Miranda declares that once Sub Commissioner Paz Murillo was detained, he called Sub Commissioner Jose David Aguilar Moran, chief of intelligence for Honduras' National Police, on his cell phone and passed the phone to him, who ordered him and threatened him to free Paz Murillo and hand over the tanker truck that was transporting the drugs, that it was an order from higher up," the report mentions.

While the Honduran government has denied the accuracy of the report, which was created by the Honduran Security Ministry's Inspector General, other police officers claim that Moran was in fact involved in the case.

"We do not have in hand today any information that says Commissioner Aguilar Moran is a drug trafficker or collaborator of the drug cartels," Omar Rivera, a member of the special commission, told reporters on 26 January. "We are going to conduct an exhaustive investigation."

Earlier this week, President Juan Orlando Hernández spoke of "transforming the National Police" at Moran's swearing in but this recent news if proved true will over shadow any such plans.