Roatan’s Mayor Arrested in Island’s Biggest Drug Bust Ever

ATIC (Technical Criminal Investigation Agency) police agents performed the arrest after received information about major drug shipment arriving on the island via sea and being transferred to another location where they would be picked up to continue their journey north. ATIC road block in Brick Bay stopped a red water truck suspected to carry the drugs and a red Toyota Land Cruiser that fallowed it and attempted to make a U-turn.

The water truck was driven by Efraín Santos, Francisco Henríquez and Jorge Rosales and the Toyota was driven by Mayor Hynds. Instead of 2,000 gallons of water the truck’s cistern contained 2,000 kilos of cocaine and the four suspects were arrested.

Mayor Hynds was allowed to remain in his vehicle, but was eventually handcuffed and transferred to the Honduran Naval Station in French Harbour. The water truck with license plates AAM 7220 and Liberal Party 2021 election sticker on its dashboard was moved to the Honduran Naval station in French Harbor. The intercepted cocaine represents roughly two days of cocaine consumption in the US, were unloaded and inventoried.

The next day the four suspects and some of the drugs were flown by military plane to Tegucigalpa for further investigation. Mayor Hynds owns several large waterfront island businesses and properties including Island Shipping, Roatan Shipyard and is partner in the Mahogany Bay cruise ship port. ATIC agents began searches of some of these businesses.

The bust is timed as Hurricane Ida moved north of Roatan towards the Gulf of Mexico just hours prior to the bust. Drug smugglers often use rough weather and moonless nights to facilitate their operations.

Honduras has been on a cocaine trafficking route to US since circa 1974 when CIA’s pilot Barry Seal established a series of landing strips and beacons from Colombia through Panama and onto Louisiana and later Mena, Arkansas. Seal also begun the history of cocaine busts on Roatan when his twin-engine Merlin plane was apprehended at the island’s airport with 40 kg of cocaine in 1979.

A Sailboat Hits the Reef, Sinks

Bad Weather, exhaustion, miscommunication and tricky entrance to Brick Bay made for a disastrous end to the American sailboat ‘Scarlett’ on January 22. The 40 foot Canada Sailcraft built in 1987 was captained by Skipper Ricardo Druillet with his hand Robert Ader of Miami. After departing Colon, Panama two days earlier and heading for Jamaica, the sailors battled tough weather and 10 foot seas and decided to reroute their journey for Roatan.
The sailors booked a slot at the Barefoot Cay marina, but Adler wrote that they were advised to “anchor outside the channel,” as the boat arrived at 2am. “We offer guidance through the channel entrance 8am to 4pm every day,” wrote Gary Lewis, the General Manager at Barefoot Cay, the largest Roatan marina that hosted over 100 boats in 2017.

My depth finder indicated 30 foot depth and we dropped the anchor,” said Druillet. “Then we got swung around onto the reef.” ‘Scarlett’ ended up on top of the reef just west of Brick Bay channel entrance, in knee high water.

“My depth finder indicated 30 foot depth and we dropped the anchor,” said Druillet. “Then we got swung around onto the reef.” ‘Scarlett’ ended up on top of the reef just west of Brick Bay channel entrance, in knee high water. “There was deeper water inside the boat than out,” said Ader about the couple abandoning the boat at night.

“This is the worse marked entrance [to a harbor] I’ve seen,” said Druillet about the entrance to Brick Bay harbor. Druillet visited dozens of harbors in Mexico and Central America on his “dream trip” which he begun with his wife and son in San Francisco and which took him south to Panama and eventually to Roatan.

According to Nic Bach of Roatan Marine Park [RMP] however, “new channel markers with solar beacons in Brick Bay” were installed about a year ago at a cost of $1,800 provided by Island Shipping. Bach wrote that over the years RMP has placed 90 channel and demarcation markers around Roatan and ZOLITUR is planning to fund another 70 to mark every channel around the island.

While Shawn Hyde negotiated with the San Diego insurance company about the salvaging cost of ‘Scarlett,’ someone boarded the distressed vessel and took much of its equipment. “They took the solar panels, they took everything. Absolutely everything,” said Ader.

Druillet said he purchased the boat for $54,000 and spent additional $40,000 improving it. “Now it’s a total loss and its insured for $65,000,” the skipper said. Druillet, originally from Uruguay, says he has been sailing since the age of 11 and that his grandfather was a founder of “El Yacht Club Uruguayo.”

Salvage master Eulalio ‘Lalo’ Suazo attempted to salvage ‘Scarlett’ on January 25 and 26, but the boat, took on water and sunk in 500 feet of water about 300 meters from the channel.

Brick Bay has claimed its share of unlucky boats over the years. “We did three salvage operations in the last four years in Brick Bay,” said Hyde. “In 2015 a boat was on the way to Barefoot Cay, and complained that its electronic charts were off by 30 feet and it ended up on the reef.”