The Drug Enforcement Agency said its agents did not fire their weapons in an incident that left four people in a tribal area of Honduras dead.

The DEA was assisting law enforcement in Honduras in a drug sweep last Friday. Officials say the country has become a stopping ground for cocaine trafficking into the U.S.

But family members and the mayor of a town in the tribal area say the four people who were killed were not involved in the drug trade. Two pregnant women died.

“The boat was just transporting people and some cargo. They were coming to town to spend Mother’s Day,” Serene Trapp, whose cousin, Candelaria Trapp, 45, was killed, told The Washington Post.

DEA agents were armed by they said it was the Honduras officers who fired their weapons on the boat carrying Trapp and the other victims.

Get the Story:
Probe underway in remote area of Honduras after gunfight involving U.S. drug agents (The Washington Post 5/18)
Anger Rises After Killings in U.S.-Honduras Drug Sweep (The New York Times 5/18)

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Four dead in DEA-involved shooting in tribal area of Honduras (5/17)