Honduras Arrests 5 Syrians Headed To US With Stolen Passports

11.19.2015 | News | Daily Surge |

Five Syrians refugees allegedly stole Greek passports and were apprehended in Honduras late Tuesday night, .a law enforcement spokesman for the Central American country said Wednesday.

The men planned to enter the United States by making their way to Mexico and crossing the US southwest border, but their plans were thwarted after flying into an airport in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and getting arrested.

Police spokesman Anibal Baca told La Pensa that the men didn’t speak a word of Greek and had traveled to Lebanon, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica before arriving in Honduras.

Baca said Greek law enforcement tipped off Honduras about the men’s voyage following the Paris terrorist attack in France on Friday.

“The passports were stolen (in Greece), those are not their real names, we are confirming their identities,” he said.

Honduran border agents have arrested more than 12,000 foreigners so far in 2015 from countries including Iran, Ghana, Somalia, Ethiopia and Pakistan, according toHonduran newspaper El Heraldo.

The United Nations (UN) referred to Mexico as a “global pathway” in 2013 warned that “irregular migrants” were traveling to Central and South America to take the same routes that Central Americans and Mexicans use to illegally enter the United States. They referred to Mexico as a “global pathway” from the terror-laden region.

The arrests come as the U.S. government is on high alert for follow-up attacks to the Paris bombings. U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials are coordinating a new effort to flag suspected fake passports and identity documents that terrorists could exploit to travel.

One of the terrorists killed by French police was found to have entered Europe through a Greek island that is a popular entry point for Syrian and other refugees.