Former Information Ministry chief says disappearances are organized crime’s response to extradition

Tegucigalpa – The former director of the Directorate of Police Investigation (DPI) said on Wednesday that the disappearance of people was a reaction of organized crime to the extradition of organized crime bosses. José Alfredo Ponce.

“The disappearances are a response of organized crime, and 34 organized crime bosses have been extradited under this administration,” Ponce declared.

He explained that extraditing these people would create a rearrangement, a struggle for power, territory, routes and the ability to move goods to the north of the continent.

Ponce explained that drug gangs facilitate drug trafficking because they help manage small-scale trafficking within Honduras and provide security for transportation within the country.

Likewise, he noted that organized crime always targets police officers, soldiers, judges, prosecutors or people within the power of the state to carry out illegal activities.

He added that organised crime also looks for people who are trained to use guns, so they turn to the police and the military.

He therefore admitted that the soldiers and former police officers participated or collaborated in the commission of the crime.

“We cannot ignore that there are former soldiers and former police officers involved in organised crime,” he acknowledged.

He suggested that institutions such as the armed forces and the national police must be constantly purged to combat such criminal elements.

However, the former director general of the Ministry of Information affirmed that the current administration of the National Police is doing a good job.

Although he stressed that legal mechanisms are being addressed to give the security institutions greater strength, such as the reform of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, the approval of the Effective Cooperation Act, the National Police Organization Act, the Regulatory Act and the use of chips.

Ponce criticized the current government for declaring war on crime but using machetes and weapons instead of the necessary mechanisms to fight the scourge. silver