As we understand it, the DPP is filing papers to have the charges which were brought against him at the Magistrate's level, heard before the Supreme Court.

Currently, he is detained by police pending investigation into the origin of the tens of thousands of dollars in hard currency he was found with.

As we told you yesterday, his is a very curious case. Last Thursday, Police caught Beltran, in the Corozal Free Zone with a .25 caliber pistol and nine .25 live rounds of ammunition.

A further search also turned up $20,156.00 worth of US currency, One thousand eight hundred of which was found by a Free Zone bank to be counterfeit.

Corozal police detained Beltran and charged him with kept ammunition without a gun license and possession of counterfeit currency.

Beltran appeared before magistrate court Clive Lino where he pleaded guilty to both the firearm and ammunition charges. He was then sentenced to 2 years each for the firearm and ammunition charges to be run concurrently. Beltran was escorted to the Belize prison, but within 24 hours filed an appeal with the courts, which allowed for him to post bond and receive bail.

He was immediately re-arrested by police and charged with the possession of counterfeit currency. He went back to court, and pleaded guilty but that was nullified when the Magistrate outright dismissed the charges. The Magistrate ruled that there was no Authoritative Agency of the US Government to authenticate or dispute the authenticity of the money in question.