Drugs, gangs and hopelessness: San Pedro Sula is the world's most dangerous city

By RYAN GORMAN

San Pedro Sula lays claim to a dubious title -- the world's highest murder rate.

The impoverished Honduran city's roughly one million residents were slaughtered by drug gangs at a rate of 187 per 100,000 in 2013, according to one estimate. As a country, Honduras is by far the world's most dangerous -- 82 out of every 100,000 people are killed each year, according to the Washington Post.

America's most notorious city, Detroit, sees its residents cut down at a rate of only 48 per 100,000, according to the Post.

The mindless violence is mostly perpetrated by brutal drug gangs gunning each other down while fighting for a piece of the drug trade as the city has become an important stop for Mexican traffickers on the way to the U.S., according to the Los Angeles Times.

These violent drug gangs have overwhelmed the city's feeble police force. Officers often appear masked in press conferences touting drug seizures and arrests out of fear for retribution from the gang members.

Gang leadership even holds their own press conferences, an unthinkable (by U.S. standards) spectacle heavily attended by local media. Street thugs also charge every home and business a "protection tax," accordion to the Times.

Those who choose not to pay the tax have two choices: Leave or die.

Ciudad Juarez, a notorious Mexican border town also infested with drug gangs that previously topped most dangerous cities lists, has a murder rate of only 148 per 100,000, according to the Post.

El Salvador, the second-most dangerous country in the world, sees 66 out of every 100,000 people murdered each year.

Images from the impoverished city show families crammed into tiny homes on dirt roads, bodies stashed along the side of a road and barefoot children playing soccer on dirt lots.

Gang members are easily identifiable by the tattoos covering their bodies, including their faces.