In 2003, drug barons Jose Ramon Hidalgo (from Colombia) and Luis Mauricio Palacios Gamboa (from Guatemala) were sentenced to 16 years for drug trafficking. While the men were being moved to Choluteca Prison in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in June, the convoy was stopped by armed police a few miles from their destination for a "routine road inspection."

The inspection turned out to be a "Hollywood movie-scale con trick" complete with a set and large cast and the men escaped from custody. "The whole thing was so carefully done that the prison guards believed it was a real inspection," a spokesman later explained. "Their uniforms were exactly like ours and they had three trucks painted just like police trucks. It was worthy of a Hollywood movie production."