For the past two weeks we've been reporting on carjackings in the west - led most likely by cross border bandits pressing into border communities.  

Well, police hope to put a stop to it.  

This morning, a convoy of Police and BDF left Benque's police station and headed down the Arenal road.  Cherisse Halsall traveled to Benque and beyond to see what the cops are doing to thwart trans-national crime.

It's been an intense two weeks for the people of Benque, Succotz, and the surrounding areas. 

On December 5th the body of a missing former school teacher, Elito Puc, was discovered decapitated in the Adjacency Zone. 

And in the last three weeks, there have been a string of five Carjacking on the Hydro Road in the Pine Ridge area. Officer Commanding Superintendent Diana Hall says the vehicle have likely chopped up for parts in Guatemala.

Diana Hall - OC, Benque Viejo
"The Benque Viejo formation has seen five reported incidents where 4 vehicles and one motorcycle were stolen in the Succotz area too, a motorcycle and a pickup and on the Arenal Road, we had two pickups that were stolen one at 101/2 miles on the hydro road. One at 1.5 miles on the hydro road and 31/2 miles on the hydro road. Well the first two incidents two masked men with shotguns and the other three incidents were three Hispanic male persons with short arms."

Reporter
"Is it believed that these men are linked to each other?"

Diana Hall 
"We do believe so."

Reporter
"And is it believed also that they are coming from across the border"

Diana Hall 
"Yes we have information that its two Guatemalans and a Belizean. The information that we received is that these culprits take the vehicles over to the Guatemalan side to a chop shop. They would come into our neighbourhoods take photographs of the vehicle, the target that they want and they would just react."

Cherisse Halsall
"And there were also similarities in the way that the men were disguised when they did this, correct?"

Diana Hall 
"They had combat some might be in farm clothes and they also had their weapons and they knew the people because they called them by name so they might be familiar to the area."

In an effort to combat the outlaw behaviour in what had been one of the country's most peaceful areas Commissioner of Police Chester Williams today led a convoy of police officers on a familiarization tour of back roads leading to the Guatemalan border. 

And it was a very involved tour. The COMPOL consulted with the mayor of Benque

Checked in on the checkpoint at the entrance to the Arenal road. And stopped in at the police station at the end of the world, or at least the end of Belize

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police 
"Today what we did was to go and to look at the different areas and as you can see in the Arenal area those areas that were easily accessible to the bandits who come over have now been blocked with fallen trees and we intend to by the end of the day today dig some trenches across those roads to prevent the bandits from coming over so easily through the use of vehicles and the same you can see in the Succotz area the road that linked Succotz to the Benque area that too has been cut off because that was the back road used by the bandits when they take the vehicles they go from Succotz into Benque and then through the Arenal road and so what we're looking at is to see how we can cut off all access to those persons."

But once the Commissioner and the cameras that came with him leave, operations here will move forward with what ACP Vidal calls a three-prong strategy. 

Marco Vidal - OC
"Given these incidents recently we have given a three-prong approach to this issue one we have looked at the intelligence, we are looking at our patrol strategy. We are looking at the issue of incorporating the road watch programs and adding a community policing aspect to it in this area so that we can get more support from the community and getting this community to assist is in terms of moving forward with our strategy."

"In terms of intelligence, we have been coordinating from its inception with the national police of Guatemala. We intend to go even further than that to the Ministerio de Civil al Publico which would be the head office in Peten to get more investigative officers involved from their end to do certain things that we need to get done from their side in terms of recovery of the vehicles etc. In terms of the Patrol, they will be responsible also for the patrol in the immediate in terms of Succotz village. Out efforts have been bolstered with the BDF now so we are looking at the BDF extending its operations along with the police to cover the outskirts of Succotz."

Commissioner Williams says that the recent crime spree may be a result of the opportunity that had been created by an area that, in terms of police presence, was undermanned. 

Chester Williams 
"One of the issues that the people of Succotz were complaining about was the fact that the police station here in Succotz was not being manned or was undermanned and I fully agree Succotz has expanded significantly and so we need to ensure that we step up our level of policing by increasing our numbers to be able to meet the demands of the community and so I've directed Ms Hall that I want by tomorrow that we have four police officers posted in Succotz and by the end of next week we have a fifth officer."

And while the trenches are meant to stop any more criminal encroachments police remain aware that the community also faces threats from internal criminal activity.

Chester Williams 
"Whatever it is that we're doing on the outskirts will form as a defence dome to the Benque Arenal area 
We don't only want to focus on international bandits we also want to focus on those that we have within our country so we have to look at both transient and cross border criminals."

In February of 2020 when another set of recruits pass out of the police academy, four of them will be assigned to Succotz, allowing for patrols to be carried out without reinforcements from Benque.