10,000 crocodiles, 7 lions starving to death after US freezes elite Honduras family's assets

More than 10,000 crocodiles are starving to death on a farm in Honduras after assets belonging to wealthy family are frozen because of US accusations they laundered money for drug traffickers.

The farm is owned by the Rosenthal family, a powerful clan in Honduras with interests spanning banking, media, property, tourism, livestock and agriculture.

"The crocodiles and lions are dying of hunger, and we are too because we haven't been paid the last two weeks," one worker told AFP journalists when visiting the 30-hectare (70-acre) property called Cocodrilos Continental, in San Manuel near the city of San Pedro Sula, also saw seven scrawny lions kept in cages.

"Forty animals have already died. They were taken away in boxes by trucks to be buried," he said.

The freezing of the Rosenthals' assets led to the accounts used to pay the workers and buy animal feed being blocked.