Extradited from Honduras, Alleged Nicaraguan Cocaine Trafficker to Face Trial in Texas

The U.S. calls him Raduan Omar Zamora Mayorga, but the alleged drug trafficker reportedly has many identities and aliases. Some know him as José Luis Oliva Meza, others by monikers like “The Lord of the Skies” and “The Boss of Bosses.”

Now, the 41-year-old Nicaraguan national will stand trial in Texas. Arrested in Honduras in May and subsequently extradited to the U.S., Mayorga appeared in a federal court in Plano on Monday.

In a press release Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in East Texas said Mayorga is facing charges related to manufacturing and distributing cocaine with the knowledge that it would be distributed in the U.S.

If convicted, he faces a sentence that could range between 10 years and life, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the release.

According to the indictment, he headed a drug trafficking organization that manufactured, stored and shipped “multi-ton qualities” of cocaine to the U.S. using “speedboats, shipping vessels, submersible watercraft, aircraft, semi-trailer trucks and other motor vehicles.”

Bound for the U.S., the drugs often passed through other countries, including Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico.

The Honduran daily El Heraldo reported that Mayorga was first arrested in Honduras in April 2020, charged with illegal gun possession. He was placed under house arrest.

In April 2021, the U.S. requested his extradition, which a Honduran judge approved in June. He's one of some 34 people extradited to the U.S. from Honduras since 2014, the newspaper added.

In recent years, the U.S. has extradited several high-profile drug kingpins from Latin America. In May, former Mexican Gulf cartel leader Mario Cárdenas Guillén was brought to Texas to stand trial on charges stemming from allegedly distributing cocaine in the U.S.

Last October, Wilson Wilfredo Luargas-Garcia, a Guatemalan cocaine trafficker, was sentenced to life in federal prison after a trial in Texas.