Top Honduras drug fighter slain

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Gunmen on motorcycles killed Honduras' top anti-drug official in the capital yesterday, two months before he planned to retire and move to Canada.

Former army Gen. Julian Aristides Gonzalez, director of the Office for Combatting Drug Trafficking, was driving alone after dropping his daughter at school when assailants opened fire, police said.

Gonzalez, 57, served five years in the post and was preparing to step down in February, when Honduras' new president takes office.

His wife, Leslie Portillo, is a major in the Honduran army.

Honduras has one of the highest crime rates in Latin America and is a key transit country for drug smuggling, which authorities say probably increased after the United States suspended anti-narcotics cooperation and development aid to protest the June 28 coup that ousted leftist President Manuel Zelaya.