26.7 C
Belize City
Thursday, March 28, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

Belizean murdered in Honduras

InternationalBelizean murdered in Honduras

The murders are drug-related, declared Honduran authorities

The bodies of a Belizean man and three other men who were massacred by gunmen on a road leading to a farm opposite the colony, Villas Paraíso, in the El Carmen area of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, were found by Hondurans soldiers and police who went to the area Thursday morning last week, March 6.

Authorities reported that the four men murdered in what they believe was a drug-related massacre were identified as Belizean-Guatemalan, Mario Roberto Cocón Ochaeta, 34; Mexican, Miguel Torres Jimenez; Douglas Secoff Anthony, 23, of Roatan, Honduras, and Leizer Hugo De la Rosa Garcia, 36, of Guatemala.

Quentin Juarez, Commander of the National Interagency Security Force (Fusina), in an interview with Diario De Honduras, San Pedro Sula, said that they have declared that the deaths were due to a bad drug deal, which led to the shooting.

According to Diario de Honduras, Germán Alfaro, Deputy Commander of the Military Police, reported that two of the bodies were together, and possibly, the other two tried to escape, because the bodies were a distance away. Several 9mm expended shells were recovered from the scene.

Alfaro said that the massacre reminds them that their border is porous and criminals infiltrate their border to carry out such brutal and heinous crimes.

The bodies were taken to the morgue about 4:00 that Thursday morning.

Ochaeta and Jimenez – the Belizean and the Mexican – were identified through their passports, which were found on them on the crime scene.

The Heraldo newspaper, of San Pedro Sula, reported that at 1:00 on Friday afternoon, March 7, the body of one of the four men was recovered from the morgue by his family. The relatives of the deceased, Douglas Secoff Antony, 23, took his body to Roatán, Honduras, his native country.

Relatives of two more victims claimed them at 3:00 that same Friday afternoon at the mortuary, and they were identified as Mario Roberto Cocón Ochaeta, the Belizean; and the Guatemalan, Leizer Hugo De la Rosa Garcia, 36. Garcia’s relatives said that the four men had been friends for several years and Ochaeta, from Belize, came to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Thursday, and went to De La Rosa’s home in the city; De la Rosa went to the city on Monday from Roatan, also in Honduras.

Relatives of De la Rosa said that he was a tradesman who worked independently, and they were unaware that he was in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and were clueless as to why he went to that city.

Cocón Ochaeta worked several years in a construction company in Guatemala and had resided several years in Belize, and had dual citizenship.

In an interview with Heraldo, relatives reported that Ochaeta entered San Pedro Sula in a vehicle, but did not specify what brand or type. They speculate that the men may have been killed for the car.

The bodies of the two men (Cocón and De la Rosa Garcia) were released to their relatives, and with help from the consulate of Guatemala, were taken to the island of Santa Elena, Petén, Guatemala, for burial.

The body of the fourth victim, who is Mexican, Miguel Torres Jimenez, has not yet been claimed by his relatives.

National police officials say that the quadruple murder has been linked to organized crime and attributed to a bad deal for the sale of drugs.

Police said that the massacre of the four men is the fourth such brutal killing that has occurred in the city since the beginning of the month.

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International