InSight Crime AnalysisĪs the examples above demonstrate, confidential informants can play a crucial role in many organized crime investigations, making their use common practice by US law enforcement. Sources consulted by Spanish news agency ABC said the informant indicated that the defendants, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas - both of whom were indicted under seal in a US court - regularly coordinated drug shipments out of a terminal reserved for government use at Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar International Airport. Don H was arrested by Honduran authorities in October 2014 and extradited to the United States in February of this year.Īnother recent, prominent case also involved the use of a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. Two close relatives of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro were arrested in Haiti and extradited to the United States after reportedly making contact with a DEA confidential informant in Honduras. Ascanio Blanco was arrested in Colombia in January 2014, and later ordered extradited to the United States. Later that day, “CS-1” and “CS-2” purportedly met with Camilo Restrepo in New York to inspect and pay for the previously discussed cocaine shipment.ĭon H and Ascanio Blanco were charged with conspiring to violate US drug laws in a sealed indictment in November 2012, along with alleged co-conspirators Mendoza Zuniga and Camilo Restrepo. The court documents state that Mendoza Zuniga sent payment instructions to “CS-2” on August 7, 2012. Hector Emilio Fernandez Rosa, alias "Don H," and Luis Alberto Ascanio Blanco were two top-level drug traffickers charged in the US thanks to the use of confidential informants.Įric Francisco Mendoza Zuniga and Juan Camilo Restrepo, both of whom appear to be lower-level players, were also targeted in the operation. According to the court documents, confidential informants “CS-1” and “CS-2” attended this meeting, wherein Don H and Ascanio Blanco “discussed, among other things, the sale of approximately 350 kilograms of cocaine in New York, New York.” In July 2012 in San Pedro Sula, Don H allegedly met with Luis Alberto Ascanio Blanco, a Venezuelan who reportedly served as an intermediary between various drug trafficking organizations in Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. The use of confidential informants by US law enforcement has led to the recent arrests of several high-level actors in the international drug trade, but these successes may be overshadowing the potential pitfalls of the practice.Īccording to US court documents accessed by InSight Crime and recently reported on by La Prensa, two confidential informants helped US authorities build a case against Hector Emilio Fernandez Rosa (alias “Don H”) - the alleged leader of a major cocaine trafficking ring operating out of San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
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