Relatives, lawyers and feminist groups in Honduras are demanding justice in the case of Angie Peña, a 22-year-old who disappeared in 2022 MEXICO CITY -- Relatives, lawyers and women's rights groups in Honduras demanded justice Monday as they awaited a verdict in a sex-trafficking case surrounding the 2022 disappearance of Angie Peña, which they say exposed the impunity and corruption that allow widespread gender violence in the Central American country. Four men are on trial for crimes related to Peña’s disappearance. A Honduran court is expected to announce a verdict Monday.
Two U.S. citizens, Harold Green and William James Murdock, face human trafficking charges, while another U.S. citizen, Gary Lee Johnston, and Honduran Gustavo Trejo are accused of criminal association. The case has implicated public officials and exposed a criminal ring known as “Delta Teams” that has drawn comparison to the Jeffrey Epstein network in a country with high rates of gender violence and low conviction rates for related crimes. Lawyers representing the family have questioned the lack of transparency of the investigation and trial, which was not open to the press or general public.
Peña's family said it has received death threats, and the August killing of Dereck McNeil, a key protected witness, further exposed the dangers of seeking justice in Honduras. She said the case has exposed a criminal network “beyond what we can even imagine” and called for the state to provide answers on what happened to Peña. Peña, 22, disappeared on Jan. 1, 2022, after taking a Jet Ski ride while on vacation with her family in Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras.
Initially, authorities investigated her disappearance as a possible accident, but the case expanded into a trafficking investigation after the Jet Ski she used was found in Belize, some 90 nautical miles (170 kilometers) away. In August 2022, authorities searching Johnston’s house in Roatan in connection with Peña's disappearance found a minor there. Johnston was accused of commercial sex trafficking and child pornography and sentenced to 32 years in a case separate from the proceeding involving Peña.
In April 2024, authorities ordered arrest warrants for four more people, including Green, Murdock and Trejo. Honduran authorities have sought an Interpol notice for the fourth, U.S. citizen Antony Frank Grayson. The Honduran public prosecutor’s office has said the suspects are all part of a sex trafficking network that included minors and that the group also carried out other crimes, including drug trafficking.
It alleges police and at least one judge helped facilitate the criminal network, without naming the officials. Defense lawyers for the accused have denied involvement and requested an acquittal. McNeil, the protected witness who was killed, alleged further corruption within a special unit of the public prosecutor’s office known as the ATIC.
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