6,000 marijuana plants found in Patuca, Olancho; caretaker held
Fusina agents found a marijuana plantation at Buenos Aires in Patuca, Olancho, and detained its caretaker, Ferrufino Vásquez Zelaya, seizing 6,000 plants and an unlicensed shotgun. One outlet counted 5,500 plants, the agency said the plants would be destroyed within hours, and no weight, value or court outcome was reported.
🇭🇳 Buenos Aires, Patuca, Olancho · Honduras
Arrested
1
Plants destroyed
6,000
Agency
Fuerza de Seguridad Interinstitucional Nacional (Fusina)
Fusina agents found a marijuana plantation at Buenos Aires, a community in
Patuca municipality, Olancho department, and took its caretaker into custody.[1]The detained man was named as Ferrufino Vásquez Zelaya, who was described
as the person in charge of guarding the plantation.[1]
Fusina said officers seized 6,000 marijuana plants at the site.[2]The agency
said the plants had not yet been weighed or valued and would be destroyed within
hours.[2]Officers also seized a shotgun the man held without a permit, and El
Heraldo said he would be placed at the disposal of the courts of Olancho.[1]
Fusina said the detainee would be sent to the prosecutor’s office to be
prosecuted for illegal possession of a weapon and drug trafficking.[2]Proceso
Digital reported the find as roughly 6,000 plants in the Patuca area of Olancho
and said the operation was led by Fusina, Honduras’s inter-institutional
national security force.[3]Colonel Santos Nolasco, a Fusina spokesman, cited
the find among what he called enormous plantations and said the force had seized
more than 68,000 pounds (34 tonnes) of marijuana nationwide that year.[3]
Photos and video
Photograph filed as 'plantaciones-de-Marihuana' with the report on the Patuca, Olancho plantation find; the page gives it no caption or credit.Photo details
Proceso Digitalproceso.hnESBaja el decomiso de cocaína, pero aumenta tráfico de marihuana en Honduras
Open questions the AI reported
The number of plants differs: Fusina's own report, as carried by ACAN-EFE, gives 6,000, while El Heraldo gives 5,500; the agency figure is used.
No weight, area or street value for the plantation was published, and the source says the plants had not been weighed or priced.
The dates conflict: El Heraldo says the operation was on a Tuesday and dates its report 17 March 2015, while Proceso Digital describes the find as made 'in recent hours' in its 19 March edition; 17 March is used as the incident date.
El Heraldo says the detainee would be placed at the disposal of the courts of Olancho, while Fusina said he would be sent to the prosecutor's office; no charge, custody ruling or sentence was reported.
It is not established whether the plants were destroyed on the day of the find or later.
The submitted Proceso Digital page is a round-up that also reports the 47-kilogram cocaine container in Puerto Cortés, a 1,200-kilogram truck load at La Ceibita, Santa Bárbara, and 90 packages in a bus near Tela; those are separate events and are not covered here.
The page photograph is filed only under the filename 'plantaciones-de-Marihuana', with no caption or credit confirming where it was taken.
Honduras's police investigation directorate (DPI) burned more than 400 pounds (about 181 kg) of marijuana in Tegucigalpa on 30 October 2026, eight days after seizing it in Marale from a suspect it calls 'El Colocho' of the 'El Diablo' cartel. The man arrested with the load and an AR-15 rifle remains in custody.
DNPA and DNPSC officers seized 131 pounds of suspected marijuana and the transport vehicle on 22 October 2026 at La Bolsa in Tocoa, Colón, during Plan Operativo Escudo. FESCCO in La Ceiba took the case; no arrests were reported.
Honduran anti-drug police raided a property in Comayagua under a judicial order and arrested one man. The search found 45 wraps of suspected marijuana besides 299 wraps of suspected cocaine, phones, cash and a video recorder.
On 19 September 2026 DNPA anti-drug officers in Puerto Cortés, Cortés, searched a minibus and found 28 bales with 1,300 pounds of suspected marijuana, valued preliminarily above 10 million lempiras. They detained three men aged 29, 55 and 68 for aggravated drug trafficking.
