Bonilla Valladares, also known as “El Tigre,” Abused His Official Position to Protect Cocaine Shipments and Murder a Rival Drug Trafficker as Part of a Conspiracy Involving High-Ranking Honduran Politicians and Members of the Honduran National Police
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Anne Milgram, the Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced that JUAN CARLOS BONILLA VALLADARES, a/k/a “El Tigre,” the former Chief of the Honduran National Police, was sentenced today to 19 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. BONILLA VALLADARES previously pled guilty to one count of cocaine importation conspiracy before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who imposed today’s sentence.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, a/k/a “El Tigre,” was a member of the Honduran National Police for decades, ultimately rising to Chief, the highest-ranking post in the police force. Bonilla Valladares abused his official positions and rose to power by facilitating cocaine trafficking on a massive scale and using violence, including murder, to protect ton-quantities of cocaine headed for the United States, for the benefit and at the behest of his powerful drug trafficking and political partners. Bonilla Valladares committed the very crimes he was sworn to prevent. Now, he’ll be treated fairly under the law—by serving a lengthy prison sentence.”
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said: "Juan Carlos Bonilla Vallardares exploited his position as the head of the Honduran National Police to traffic cocaine to the United States and protect drug traffickers. For his own personal gain, Bonilla Vallardares chose to violate the very laws he had sworn to uphold. The DEA Is relentlessly focused on dismantling the drug trafficking networks responsible for threatening the health and safety of the American people. Today’s sentencing is the result of the hard work of the men and women of the DEA and our law enforcement partners, both domestically and internationally, and reflects the commitment of the DEA to pursue those who exploit their positions of authority to import deadly narcotics into our communities."
As reflected in the Superseding Indictment, other filings in Manhattan federal court, evidence presented at the March 2024 trial of Juan Orlando Hernandez (“Hernandez”) and the October 2019 trial of Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado (“Hernandez Alvarado”) in the Southern District of New York, and statements made in open court during the prosecutions of Hernandez and Hernandez Alvarado:
Between approximately 2000 and 2022, multiple drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras and elsewhere worked together, and with support from certain prominent public and private individuals, including Honduran politicians and law enforcement officials, to receive multi-ton loads of cocaine sent to Honduras from, among other places, Colombia and Venezuela via air and maritime routes, and to transport the drugs westward in Honduras toward the border with Guatemala and eventually to the U.S. For protection from law enforcement interference, and in order to facilitate the safe passage through Honduras of multi-ton loads of cocaine, drug traffickers paid bribes to public officials, including certain presidents, members of the National Congress of Honduras, and personnel from the Honduran National Police, including BONILLA VALLADARES.
BONILLA VALLADARES was a member of the Honduran National Police between approximately 1985 and approximately 2016. During his nearly three decade-long tenure, he held high-ranking positions, including Regional Police Chief with authority over locations in western Honduras that were strategically important to drug traffickers, and, between approximately 2012 and approximately 2013, Chief of the Honduran National Police for all of Honduras. BONILLA VALLADARES abused these official positions to facilitate cocaine trafficking, and used violence, including murder, to protect the particular cell of politically connected drug traffickers he aligned with, including former Honduran congressman Hernandez Alvarado and former president of Honduras Hernandez.
For example, in exchange for bribes paid in drug proceeds, BONILLA VALLADARES directed members of the Honduran National Police, who were armed with machine guns, to let cocaine shipments pass through police checkpoints without being inspected or seized. BONILLA VALLADARES, in coordination with Hernandez Alvarado and others, also provided members of their conspiracy with sensitive law enforcement information to facilitate cocaine shipments, including information regarding aerial and maritime interdiction operations.
In or about 2010, Hernandez Alvarado told a cooperating witness (“CW-1”) that BONILLA VALLADARES was very violent and that Hernandez Alvarado and Hernandez trusted BONILLA VALLADARES with special assignments, including murder. For example, in or about July 2011, BONILLA VALLADARES participated in the murder of a rival drug trafficker at the request of Hernandez Alvarado and others because the rival trafficker had attempted to prevent Hernandez Alvarado and other members of the conspiracy from transporting cocaine through a region of western Honduras near the border with Guatemala.
Several of BONILLA VALLADARES’s co-conspirators have already been convicted and sentenced in connection with this investigation. Among others, Hernandez was convicted after trial in March 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison and Hernandez Alvarado was convicted after trial in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. Mauricio Hernandez Pineda, also a former member of the Honduran National Police and a cousin of Hernandez and Hernandez Alvarado, pled guilty to his participation in the cocaine importation conspiracy and, on July 2, 2024, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In addition to the prison term, BONILLA VALLADARES, 64, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (“OCDETF”) New York Strike Force, and Tegucigalpa Country Office, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
The OCDETF New York Strike Force provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations. The specific mission of the New York Strike Force is to target, disrupt, and dismantle drug trafficking and money laundering organizations, reduce the illegal drug supply in the United States, and bring criminals to justice.
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