Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez revealed in a press conference June 15 that the December 2009 assassination of the Honduran director of counternarcotics operations, Gen. Julian Aristides Gonzalez, was organized and carried out by individuals under the command of Honduran drug trafficker Hector "El Gato Negro" Amado Portillo, who is a known proxy of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Federation. Portillo was reportedly ordered by his Sinaloa handlers to assassinate Gonzalez. The assassination of a high-ranking counternarcotics official outside of Mexico is another indication of the Mexican cartels' expansion of control and operations into Central and South America, a region largely ill-prepared to deal with the corresponding increase in violence. In the weeks leading up to his death, Gonzalez's security forces had seized and destroyed several clandestine airstrips in northern and eastern Honduras utilized by the Sinaloa Federation as transshipment points for cocaine and precursor chemicals for the manufacturing of methamphetamine coming mainly from South America but also from Europe. More specifically, a pseudoephedrine shipment that was to arrive from France was seized by French authorities from intelligence gathered by Gonzalez, a move that was reported to so infuriate the Sinaloa Federation that it ordered Gonzalez's assassination. These Honduran government-led operations undoubtedly disrupted at least portions of the Sinaloa drug supply chain, which likely caused ripples down the line. The connection between Gonzalez's death and his involvement in the seizures and destruction of Sinaloa's runways was almost immediately connected, but it was not until the June 15 press conference that it was made public that the Sinaloa Federation ordered the assassination of Gonzalez. The type of retaliation seen in the assassination of Gonzalez is to be expected in Mexico, but the fact that Gonzalez was a high-ranking Honduran law enforcement official assassinated outside of Sinaloa's traditional areas of influence shows a capability that few criminal organizations possess. The August 2008 death of a Buenos Aires pharmacist for refusing to supply Sinaloa-linked Mexican methamphetamine traffickers with ephedrine (a precursor chemical to methamphetamine) is another example of the organization's ability to exercise their influence far outside their traditional area of operations. STRATFOR has been tracking Mexican drug cartels expansion into Central America and South America since 2008. As we see the drug trafficking routes along and through Central America increase in importance, drug trafficking organizations like the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas will continue to push farther into Central America, with "Mexican-style" violence and retaliation ordered by the drug cartels likely to occur with greater frequency. While Central America is no stranger to violence associated with the drug trade, the "Mexicanization" of the drug trade is causing alarm throughout many Central American nations as most countries do not possess a security apparatus equipped to deal with the type or level of violence seen in Mexico.