7 News Belize

Cop Says Of Immigration Mess: Went Looking For a Burglar, Found a Murder
posted (July 19, 2017)

But, if you believe today’s other witness, Commissioner Whylie knew of irregularities at that department since late 2013, and early 2014. 

That’s because the retired Superintendent Julio Valdez, stumbled upon some documents which were improperly removed from the Department. Those, you will remember, were from Arthur Saldivar, who said that someone took them out and handed them over to him. 

He eventually gave them to police, and Valdez was tasked to find out how they were removed without knowledge of the Department heads. He never did manage to find that out, but instead, he came upon what looked like a hustle. Today, he explained it to the Senate in an analogy. He said that he was tasked to investigate a burglary, and what he found when he went looking, was more like a murder. Here’s how he explained what those documents from Saldivar revealed:

Julio Valdez - Retired Police Superintendent
“Mr. Saldivar visited CIB office, Belize City. He handed some documents to Mr. Romero who was NCIB in Belize City. Mr. Saldivar refuses to give a statement to Mr. Romero saying that if we are to start investigation into Mr. Penner he would surely give a statement. I perused some of them, I noticed there were copies of nationality, signed, dated certificates, there were copies of passports. My others continued to investigate, follow up investigation trying to see how and why it came out of the immigration department, how it reached Mr. Saldivar. I perused each and every file, surprised that all these files, all the receipts that were there or all the receipts that who received the applicants at immigration was Ms. Ady Pacheco, she was the person who apparently received all those files.â€￾

“She apparently was the counter clerk somewhere but there is a receipt issued saying that application received along with the other documents, copy of passports, police record, lab results and those receipt that was Ady Pacheco who received those files that were in our possession. What I do know subsequently was those documents were taken out of the immigration office, taken to Mr. Saldivar’s house and he was told that there were documents at his house and it must be of interest. To date I do not know or did not discover how those documents left the immigration office. On seeing the documents and as I mentioned I saw that entries people entering the country. My experience as a police officer I saw that some of these did not coincide, persons come into the country, granted nationality so I commenced an investigation into the nationality section, the application itself.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
“When you took that decision to start investigating the nationalities themselves, that was a decision taken by you or you were given instructions by your superiors to launch a different aspect of the investigation?â€￾

Julio Valdez
"No the investigation was launched by myself."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Why would you take that upon yourself to do that?"

Julio Valdez
"Seeing what I had in front of me, I knew that something was wrong. I took that up and I said I will, I always use the analogy if I receive a report of burglary and I visit a house and a find a dead man in there, I will not just leave the dead man and deal with the burglary, I will pick up the murder and I saw what this was coming from and so I decided to venture into that side, the nationality itself. I tried to confirm the addresses used, I then proceeded to PGIA, Phillip Goldson International Airport and spoke to the port commander there."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"What was the significant of these addresses?"

Julio Valdez
"The area itself, it was repeated repeatedly. It was not only 1 person used that, it was an addressed used repeatedly and those address were Las Flores was repeatedly, Trial Farm, Orange Walk was used repeatedly, 21 Vernon Street is repeated if anyone know Belize City there is just days gone by a small Chinese shop that was burnt down, the address is still there but there is nothing there at 21 Vernon Street. 35 Riverside Street Benque Veijo Town, is just an empty lot, bush; Santiago Juan layout, Cayo. Las Flores again Belmopan, 35 Riverside Street and there was a street that brought interest to me because of recent I had recently left Dangriga as the officer command in Stann Creek and there was an address that was Sabal Street in Dangriga. From my knowledge I'm very much sure there is no Sabal Street in Dangriga, there is a Sabal Community but there is no Sabal Street. This featured prominently in the application in the nationality certificates that these addressed would have been used."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"So your investigation revealed that addresses were being used repeatedly. You then went to these addresses to verify them and in case you found that they were either empty lot, burnt down places, in the case of Sabal Street there is no such street and other general places, Las Flores just an area."

Julio Valdez
"It's a big place I tried to find, I mean Chinese are not hard to find I can tell you that, from my experience they are not hard to find. I went to these addresses and these addresses were there but the people who the names were nonexistent at that address. As I mentioned I visited PGIA and confirmed if and I carried a list of what I had to see whether these people did in fact enter Belize. When I went there I asked for the manifest, there is a manifest for each passenger coming into the country, documented, stored and they can update you and tell you, they make checks on that; based on that it only showed that these 3 persons were the only person who had entered Belize through PGIA. On the 10th April 2013 after having found out that these persons, 3 of them entered Belize on the 10th of April and by the 18th of May, one month they had acquired nationality. I learned how the process for granted approval, you must prove that you’re in the country for over 5 years, you must have permanent residence first, by that time you must have 5 years living in the country and then you apply for nationality."

"What I noticed is that people who made the application because I did not find out who made the application, who delivered it, except it was Ms. Pacheco who received them that the passports that is the only way you can prove to enter the country legally. The passports apparently from people applying would photocopy the first page that have all the particulars, your photograph, your name, your address and everything or some passport have your photograph and particulars to the back. They would photocopy that but somewhere along the line they were other people who had copies of passports, stamps, extension and everything and they would take the first copy of the passport, stick on to the other copies and they would place that in the file so if you do not notice that or you did not use due diligence when conducting investigation at immigration you will say yes this man have been living, it's an extension. If you notice the passport has holes to the top and it's numbered and at the second or the third or the fourth as the amount of pages you have does not coincide with the first one. I've written my report, final report on the overall investigation of what I did and that was subsequently sent to the director of public prosecutions."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize