Yesterday history was made when police investigators arrested four immigration officers at their workplace in Belize City. Arrest warrants were made for all six who were on duty when three charter flights from Haiti with Chinese nationals landed at the Phillip Goldson Airport in September and October.
They were charged with purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and forgery of an official document.
They are
29 year old Candra Wade
42 year old Angelica Lima
33 year old Jason Daly
30 year old Lindsay Wade
37 year old Mark Tench
37 year old Martin Guy
Candra Wade was charged with 10 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating the commission of an offence under the Immigration Act and 9 counts of forgery of an official document.
Lima was charged with 12 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating and 12 counts of forgery of an official document.
Lindsay Wade was charged with 2 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating and 2 counts of forgery of an official document.
Daly was charged with 8 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating and 9 counts of forgery of an official document.
Tench was charged with 2 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating and 2 counts of forgery of an official document.
Guy was charged with 2 counts of purposely aiding and facilitating and 2 counts of forgery of an official document.
Candra, Lima and Daly were released on bails of $20,000.00 each.
Lindsay, Tench and Guy were released on bails of five thousand dollars each.
The Four who had been picked up at work were charged after 5:00 yesterday evening - and were released on bail after some hours of detention.
The other two, Tench - represented by Arthur Saldivar, and Guy represented by Elson Kaseke appeared today. At least two customs officers and possibly a police officer are also being investigated.
The case was adjourned until December 14th.
According to investigation so far, the Immigration officers facilitated and corruptly processed 32 Chinese persons with what are suspected to be fake Japanese passports, carrying known to be fake Belizean visas. The Chinese were then taken away in a white van - presumably to the Princess hotel at the northern border.
Of course, if the immigration officers were indeed involved, they were just pawns in a much bigger human smuggling game with elaborate machinations, senior underground connections, and huge money behind it.
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