WASHINGTON — Two American agents with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration shot and killed a man suspected of drug smuggling in Honduras last week, an official disclosed on Sunday. The shooting, the second in a month, was the latest demonstration of the growing American involvement in counternarcotics operations in the country.

The shooting took place shortly after midnight on July 3, after a small plane suspected of smuggling drugs from South America crashed south of Catacamas in eastern Honduras. Several helicopters carrying Honduran police officers and members of a commando-style squad of D.E.A. agents converged on the site.

The security forces found two pilots. One, who was injured in the crash, was arrested. The other appeared at the doorway of the plane and “ignored orders to surrender and was shot after making a threatening gesture,” said Dawn N. Dearden, a D.E.A. spokeswoman.

The Honduran police recovered about 900 kilograms of cocaine from the plane, she said. Both pilots were given medical treatment and taken elsewhere, but the man who was shot later died. “The pilot who resisted arrest died of his injuries,” she said. “Two D.E.A. agents were involved in the shooting.”