There was a very unusual drug bust this weekend - where the drugs were found at the cost of a life.
At about 12:50 on Saturday morning, police had up a checkpoint at the intersection of the Phillip Goldson Highway and the Boom Road. That's when they saw a Mazda pickup approaching, but it diverted and sped off.
The officers set chase and when they finally caught up with the vehicle at mile 17, it had crashed. Two men and a woman were trapped inside with severe injuries, while another man was crushed under the vehicle, dead.
Those who survived were later identified as, Corozal resident Jermaine Michael Sanker, David Donovan Morrison and Diana Elizabeth Sutherland. The deceased was Anthony Maurice Somerville of Hattieville.
Officers also found seventeen compressed parcels of cannabis in the area. The drugs were weighted amounting to 16.61 kilograms or about 35 pounds.
Today, police gave us their account of what happened:
ASP Alejandro Cowo - OC, CIB, Eastern Division
"On the 27th of April sometime after 10:30pm the QRT from Ladyville police were having a checkpoint at the Burrell Boom junction and whilst they were conducting a VCP they observe a vehicle approaching the checkpoint. Upon reaching a certain distance, the vehicle made a turn and went back to the direction it was coming from. As a result, the police set a chase for the vehicle and caught up with it. Reaching mile 17, the vehicle had an accident, ran out of the road and overturned. As a result upon police inspection, they observed several persons inside of the vehicle, 2 male persons and on female was inside and a male was under the vehicle. Every person inside the vehicle had severe wounds to their body. As a result the police had to request the assistance of the fire department where the vehicle was cut and persons were rescued. The passengers at the time were Jermaine Michael Sanker, David Donavan Morrison and Diana Elizabeth Sutherland. All those people were found inside of the vehicle and had severe injuries to their bodies. Underneath the vehicle, police were able to rescue Anthony Morris Somerville, a 38 year old Belizean from Hattieville village. Unfortunately he was already dead under the vehicle. All three persons, the 2 male and the female were brought to the KHMH and are still under police guard with the injuries that they have. Also police found several parcels of suspected drugs in the area which amounted to over 21 kilograms of Marijuana. Those person inside of the vehicle will be charged as soon as they are released from the hospital."
Reporter
"The quantity of drugs found, would you hazardous to say that it's suggested to be a drug smuggling operation that was started and ended...?"
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"Yes it is."
Reporter
"Okay, do police know the origin of these parcels of drugs or is it a case that is still under investigation?"
ASP Alejandro Cowo
"We believe that the drugs were coming from the Northern District, I cannot tell if it's from Corozal or Orange Walk but it is somewhere from that area."
Diana Sutherland is in a stable condition with both legs broken, Jermaine Sanker also in a stable condition with both legs and left hand broken, and David Morrisson is in a critical condition.
The cops say that at the break of dawn they revisited the scene where they found another 5 parcels of cannabis weighing 10 POUNDS. It was deposited as found property.
Email
Print