Cattle Rustlers to Cocaine Kings: Los Cachiros

The Underworld Podcast

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When feds convicted Honduran cocaine kingpin Juan Matta Ballesteros in 1990, authorities hoped it would spell an end to the Central American nation’s growing reputation as a narco state — a status that had caused havoc across the region. Those hopes were dashed almost immediately — and not just by Matta’s family, who carried on his legacy of cartel wheeler-dealing. In the jungles of eastern Honduras, another power was on the rise, forging ties with crooked cops and banking magnates. The Cachiros were a family of cattle rustlers, whose rural smarts and ruthlessness would make them some of the most unlikely leaders in cartel history. But they would fall almost as quickly as they had risen, as US agents went on a rampage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:04.2	It's 2003 on a highway in rural, eastern Honduras, and a small engine plane is coming into land on the asphalt.
1:13.0	An odd site, perhaps, but not that odd.
1:16.1	This place is really rural, a few scattered villages in the shadow of a mountain,
1:20.2	surrounded by jungle, and almost six hours from the capital city to Gusei Galpa.
1:25.8	But the plane taxis, turns, and parks outside a farm, a farm belonging
1:31.1	to Ramon Matta Bayeasteros. Recognise the name? He's the son of Juan Matta Bayeasteros,
	...

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