On 10 October 2025 the Armed Forces seized a large marijuana plantation in a mountainous sector of Olancho in eastern Honduras.[1] The operation against the Los Veliz criminal structure was carried out jointly with the Armed Forces and the FESCCO organised-crime prosecutors.[2] Officers carried out eight house raids in the municipalities of Gualaco, San Esteban and Salamá.[2] Two men were detained as suspected members of the structure.[2] One of them, Osmin Renán Padilla Martínez, already had an arrest warrant for drug trafficking and criminal association.[2]

Inspectors found about 30,000 suspected marijuana plants on a four-manzana plot.[2] The plants stood over one metre tall.[2] The four manzanas cover about 2.8 hectares.[1] They also found a rustic installation used to dry the bushes.[2] The Armed Forces had first reported more than 40,000 bushes seized in the same mountainous area.[1]

The DLCN said the investigation began with a tip about a criminal organisation broken off from Los Cachiros.[2] The report says the structure kept extensive marijuana plantations in the San Esteban mountains.[2] It says the group extended its drug-trafficking activity to the departments of Colón, El Paraíso and Choluteca.[2] Anti-drug prosecutors brought charges against members of the structure for drug trafficking and criminal association.[2]