TEGUCIGALPA – Two people were killed and three others wounded in a clash between Honduran security forces and drug smugglers in the Caribbean coastal area of Ahuas, Honduran police said Friday.

The security forces confiscated up to 900 kilos (1,982 pounds) of cocaine in the operation, police spokesman Kelsin Arteaga told reporters in Tegucigalpa.

He identified the fatalities as a military veteran and a woman.

Three other men escaped by leaping into the water from the canoe that was carrying the drugs, according to the Security Ministry’s Hector Ivan Mejia, who said the cocaine was apparently dropped offshore by a plane with Venezuelan registration.

Roughly 400 kilos of cocaine seized earlier this week at another spot on Honduras’ Caribbean coast were incinerated Friday in the capital.

Honduran authorities intercepted more than 22 tons of cocaine in 2011. EFE