(27 Jan 2018) When Jose David Aguilar Moran took over as Honduras' new national police chief last week, he promised to continue reforming a law enforcement agency stained by corruption and complicity with drug cartels.
But a confidential Honduran government security report obtained by the Associated Press says Aguilar himself helped a cartel leader pull off the delivery of nearly a ton of cocaine in 2013.
The US street value of the cocaine involved could have topped 20 million dollars.
The incident raises questions about Honduras' much-touted purge of corrupt police and the reliability of the administration of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a key US ally in the war on drugs.
On Friday, Omar Rivera, a member of a special commission tasked with rooting out corruption in the national police, held a news conference alongside a spokesman for the National Police.
Rivera's commission says it has purged more than 4,000 members of the National Police, for reasons ranging from corruption to restructuring and voluntary retirement.
Rivera said the National Police did not have documents that corresponded to the number on the AP's report, something police spokesman Jair Meza had told the Associated Press on 15 January.
Government authorities have often had difficulties locating information in police archives over recent years.
Members of the government commission, including Rivera, have said publicly since it started its work in 2016 that the Security Ministry archives were in disarray and that some police officers assigned to the archives have worked to disappear files or wipe them clean of incriminating details.
Rivera said the commission would again look at Aguilar, his deputy and the new police inspector general.
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