La Chinda Caught by Authorities After Shoutout

Herlinda Bobadilla, alias “La Chinda,” is the 62-year-old alleged matriarch of the Montes drug cartel. Together with her sons, she is accused of operating a network that transported cocaine from South America to the United States using all forms of transportations, including boats, trucks, and airplanes. Her extradition comes a little over two months after her arrest.

One of her two sons, Tito Montes Bobadilla, was killed in the police operation in the northeastern area of Colón that resulted in her detention over the weekend. Tito was shot after he began firing at the police in a confrontation that ensued when the arrest raid began, according to the authorities. Two other people were arrested alongside Bobadilla.

Tito Montes Bobadilla, one of her two kids, was shot and killed during the police operation in Colón’s northeast that led to her incarceration over that weekend. Authorities claim that Tito had started shooting at the police and a shootout broke out while the arrest operation got under way.

The family played an important role in cocaine smuggling routes. According to reports, they worked with their local contacts to smuggle the cocaine through Honduras and Guatemala to Mexican gangs after receiving shipments of it primarily from Colombia and Venezuela. The cocaine would subsequently be brought into the US by the Mexican cartels to sell .

Bobadilla and her family allegedly worked in the drug trade as far back as 2006, according to the U.S. authorities, but the roots of the cartel go back even further.

Bobadilla’s other son, Juan Carlos, remains on the run. Both men also each have a $5 million bounty on their heads from the U.S government.

The prompt detention of Bobadilla after the U.S. government’s intervention suggests that the recently-installed Honduran government of President Xiomara Castro may be beginning to clean house, dismantling the narco state that American prosecutors claim was run by her predecessor, former President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Hernández was extradited to the United States last month to stand prosecution for drug trafficking in New York after narcos in the U.S. justice system for years accused him and his administration of supporting their illegal business. In March 2021, Antonio “Tony” Hernández, who was his brother, was found guilty of narcotics trafficking and given a life sentence to be served in the United States.