Miguel Ángel Villela Meza was captured over the weekend
in Colombia with six other members of an international drug trafficking
and weapons network. Miguel Ángel Villela Meza accepted the charges against him from the Colombia authorities.
Óscar Álvarez, the Honduran security minister, is under fire today because he declared yesterday at a news conference, that the Honduran authorities didn’t want to run the risk of arresting Miguel Ángel Villela Meza in Honduras because the Honduran judges’ hands tremble at the thought of dealing with Villela Meza. And for that reason, Villela Meza, a resident of San Pedro Sula, was
captured in Columbia. Álvarez stated that Miguel Ángel Villela Meza is in custody, and showed photographs of the accused leaving San Pedro Sula’s international airport for Barranquilla, where he was arrested on Saturday.
When he was asked why Villela Meza was not captured in Honduras, he answered that they preferred the arrest was made in Colombia because if he was brought in here on a judges order, he didn’t have the confidence that a Honduran judge would declare a firm sentence of conviction. He stated that he could not throw away 18 months of work for a judge’s hands to shake and let him go.
“In Colombia, their hands don’t shake, and possibly, these people will be
sent to the United States where they will finish their days in jail for
this type of criminal actions against humanity,” proclaimed Óscar Álvarez. He also stated that where they encountered the most problems in follow through from the judges was in the North zone, especially in La Ceiba, where it is very hard to achieve drug trafficking sentences and other organized crime convictions.
Joint Operation
The operation combined the forces of Colombian security, special units of the Honduran police and the attorney generals office, criminal
investigation agencies from United States, and Panama. According to Colombian authorities, there were 18 months of work and
investigations that took place for them to be able to capture
simultaneously the seven members of the network.
The Nicaraguan, Franklin Willian McField Bent, aka Buda, was identified
as one of the people in charge of the Maritime reception of narcotics
from the Columbia Caribbean coast. The person who sent the drugs to Buda, was the Columbian Edwin Leonardo Rodriguez Leon, also known as “El Señor de las Cadenas” (The man with the Chains), who was also captured as part of the operation. Another four Colombians were caught with Villela Meza.
The seven arrested belonged to a network that sent weapons from the Central American countries to various groups which exchanged them
for Colombian cocaine. In Columbia they oversaw leftist guerrillas, right wing paramilitary, drug traffickers and other illegal activities.
The minister Álvarez revealed that he communicated by phone with
Narvaez from the Colombian police, who then confirmed that Villela
Meza confessed, and accepted all charges against him, including
conspiracy and bribery.
“The investigation that we conducted was true and correct,” said Álvarez.
Álvarez said they used the telephone calls and relationships
that Villela Meza had with other people to break up the group that
Buda managed.
“I’m not giving any more information, but to show you, there are
pictures of Villela when he was leaving the airport. That indicates that we were following him. We have other pictures, but we don’t want to throw away the investigations against the criminal organization that Buda managed in the Central American zone, and in Honduras.”
“I assure you that they moved to 3.5 metric tons of cocaine a month through the Honduran region of Moskitia. We had to stop it, but had to wait until we had all the information we needed.”
In a statement, the Colombian attorney informed that the result of the
operation Oraculo AE2, shows the work the agency does in the permanent battle against the organizations outside the law and immigration control, in order to dismantle the criminal organizations that commit crimes at the international level.
Villela gained notoriety in football
Miguel Villela was well known in San Pedro Sula, and owned the sausage factory “San Miguel”.
Villela gained more notoriety when, despite not being a football man, he bought the team “Independiente”. The football club, during his time as president, rose from second to first division under his leadership. He contracted trainers such as Chelato Ucles and Nestor Rodrigo Matamala. He was characterized in football as being a controversial ruler, lambasting players and coaching staff alike when he did not see results. He is also remembered for revolutionizing wages in the national league.
Villela never maintained a good relationship with the press. It was rare that he would give an interview, and he did not permit anyone to take his picture, claiming that he was afraid of being kidnapped.
