Email

Print

It happened on Sunday night - and Jules Vasquez has the full story:

Jules Vasquez reporting
On Monday at 11:15, a convoy of police pickups blocked off New Road and pulled into the Queen Street station

Inside the blue Mazda, were 26 bails of cocaine -weighing over one thousand pounds and valued at 7 million US dollars.

Inside the white Wingle, four suspects caught at or near the scene - two Mexicans, and two Belizeans.

Deputy Compol Chester Williams presided over operations.

While the handcuffed suspects were marched upstairs for questioning, masked soldiers kept a tight watch looking much like Mexican anti-drug units - fitting because these drugs were probably bound for that neighboring country.

The bails were bundled upstairs where they would be weighed and securely stored. The drugs were captured after a dramatic firefight near the Blue Creek Community airstrip. Police said they started getting the information on the movements of this plane from 2:00 am on Sunday - 18 hours before it was found in Belize.

Allen Whylie, Police Commissioner
"On Sunday at about 2:06am, where we received information that an unregistered aircraft departed Venezuela. As per protocol, the police activated a number of sources consist of monitoring activities countrywide and throughout that afternoon, we continue to receive a number of updates in terms of this aircraft and the position that it was. At about 7 o' clock we started receive from some of our sources that an aircraft was seen as well as heard in the North, in the area of Santa Martha/Carmelita area and sometime around 9 o' clock, one of the joint police/BDF teams were approaching the northern community airstrip in the Blue Creek area and they met a police officer who was is attached to the Blue Creek police sub-station in the vicinity. He was stopped, he was spoken to and they were not satisfied in terms of what he said to them and so he was subsequently detained."

"At that time an aircraft was also heard in the vicinity. The joint team approached the northern community airstrip and about 9:16pm, they came under fire. They consequently returned fire. There was a fire fight between half an hour to perhaps forty five minutes. It was obvious that the joint police/BDF team were superior. They were able to overcome the firefight resistance and they were able to approach where they saw an airplane which they secured and secured the area."

DCP Chester Williams, Commander OPS
"Yes, a vehicle did sped off after the gunshots subsided and that vehicle went to the direction of the area that leads into Mexico. The officers were more interested in securing the aircraft and its content as well as the 2 persons who were left there and so those persons were detained into custody and the aircraft were secured and we were able to get its contents as well."

Allen Whylie, Police Commissioner
"Also detained in that area by the security forces, were 2 Mexicans along with a Belizean, also from the northern district."

So, police arrested three persons at the scene, and the plane with 25 bails of cocaine and two individual bricks of cocaine inside, plus a white pickup truck with Mexican plates into which one bail of cocaine had already been transferred.

The plane had to be hauled out of the area on a tow truck - the drug runners had used it for cover in the firefight and it was riddled with bullets.

Allen Whylie, Police Commissioner
"A close inspection of that aircraft indicated that the tail number is a fictitious one and we are yet to complete in terms of establishing the original tail number for that aircraft."

And while police have the plane, the biggest subject of interest right now is the role of the policemen, a constable who the police say was acting suspiciously in the area. We note that he is seen here at the scene, in cuffs wearing a police uniform pants:

Allen Whylie, Police Commissioner
"In respect to the detention of the police officer - I have directed that a thorough investigation be completed internally, not only to look at that officer, but also to look at some additional information that we have received and I can assure you that no stones will be left unturned. The investigation will be thorough."

Reporter
"It is a subject of interest of the person, the police constable involved is a relative of yours through marriage and if you are the person who assigned him to that lonely outpost in Blue Creek."

Allen Whylie, Police Commissioner
"He is no relative of mine. Contrary to what Facebook is saying that my brother-in-law or my cousin. He is not my cousin. He is a distant relative of my wife and when I say distant, I say not a first, not a second, not a third cousin. But they are from the village and so almost everybody in the village are related. But he is no relative of mine. If he was, I would not deny it and he would still be responsible for his own action."

And while we wait and see what the charges against him and the others will be, the public wonders, was this just a lucky bust, or has something changed?:

Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"The government of Belize and the certainly the Ministry of National Security has been working diligently to try to change our modus, to change our strategies and all we can say at this time is that the changes that we have made, we believe have led to this great success and we will have to learn from this success."

And since no plane has been caught recently - while so many have landed - police must be ready for whatever plays out next:

Reporter
"A huge amount of drugs is confiscated, do you see any retaliation from cartel members?"

DCP Chester Williams, Commander OPS
"We have not received any information of such, but our special branch personnel are on the ground and whatever information is obtained, it will be fed to us and then we will act. What we will be doing now, is preparing charges to those persons who will be charged. After that we will be making application to the court to have the drugs destroyed, hopefully before the end of this week. We do not want to keep it in our custody for too long."

The four persons - including police constable Norman Anthony remain detained without charges.

To confirm, it was 1,226 pounds or 556 kilos. As you heard, police hope to destroy it this week.