Honduran Drug Trafficker Sentenced to 33 Years in Prison

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Honduran man was sentenced today to 33 years in prison for leading a drug trafficking organization that smuggled at least thousands of kilos of cocaine into the United States over the last decade.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Arnulfo Fagot-Maximo, 58, was the leader of a drug trafficking organization based in the La Mosquitia region of the Department of Gracias a Dios, Honduras. His organization was a critical link between Colombian cocaine suppliers and other major Honduran traffickers. For over a decade, Fagot-Maximo received cocaine along the Mosquitia coast from Colombia by “go fast” boats, small aircraft, and submersible vessels in quantities ranging from a few hundred to several thousand kilograms per delivery. Most of this cocaine was transferred to the Montes-Bobadilla organization in Francia, Honduras, where it was received by other traffickers. Eventually the cocaine was transported by land through Honduras and Guatemala, and then it was delivered to the Mexican cartels for importation into the United States.  Fagot-Maximo received tens of millions of dollars in U.S. currency for the sale and delivery of this cocaine.

The case was investigated by the DEA as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation Harpoon through DEA’s HIDTA Task Force in Annandale, Virginia. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Brian A. Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Jesse R. Fong, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field Division, Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., and Colonel Gary T. Settle, Superintendent of Virginia State Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady.

Assistance in the investigation and prosecution was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York, the Middle District of Florida, and the Southern District of Florida. Assistance was also provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Honduran National Police. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James L. Trump, Thomas W. Traxler and DOJ Trial Attorney Anthony Aminoff prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:15-cr-290.