7 News Belize

Drug Jet Lands in Remote OW District - Cops Look for the Drugs
posted (January 22, 2020)
Another drug plane landed in Belize early this morning - this one in the remote reaches of the Orange Walk District between Crooked Tree and Shipyard.

But, this time, the Gulfstream G2 was not burnt - pictures show it looking quite smart above the jungle airstrip.

And, while the jet is intact, additionally police believe the drug cargo which it was carrying is still in the country.

Today, the commissioner explained that the landing site is remote and hard to reach:...

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Late yesterday evening, we were notified of the plane coming out of South America and as we normally do, we deployed our officers to all the known locations where we believe the plane would have landed. The plane, from what we were made to understand, flew over Belize and went into Mexico and was going to land in Mexico, but the Mexican authorities had their air assets up-three of them I was told-and the three air assets that the Mexican authorities had up prevented them from making the land in Mexico. And so they came back over to Belize and went to land in that very unusual area. That was around 3a.m. or thereabout this morning. We have since deployed our officers to the area and it is not an easy place to reach; it is extremely rough terrain. From we got the information, we mobilized and we couldn't get to the area because of the mucky terrain. All the police vehicles end up bogging and those are vehicles with four-wheel drive. And they couldn't get to the location. Despite that though, we still do believe that the content, and we believe it is drugs, is still in the country and we have teams out in the area searching the entire area hoping that we will find those who have the drugs in their possession."

Reporter
"So you all expect that the drugs were somewhat trapped in that area by nature by lay of the land?"

Chester Williams
"From what we gathered from the Mexican air recognizance was that there were three vehicles seen in the area of the plane, two of which had heavily armed men and we believe a pickup truck containing the drugs and so those are the vehicles that we are looking for right now. We know that there is some road or makeshift road that they can go through that area and go through the back and into Mexico, so we have also looked to see how we could cut off that outlet and try to see if we can force them out to the highway. So police and B.D.F. are in the area and we are hopeful that we will be able to find the cargo."

Reporter
"Sir, I have credible reports which say that you all were tipped off from yesterday afternoon that a plane was coming out of Venezuela and that it would be landing in the Rhaburn Ridge area and in deed this is in the Rhaburn Ridge area. Why didn't police act proactively or preemptively on this information to be in that area and pounced when it landed?"

Chester Williams
"Well that is what you received. You know after the fact they always say all kinds of thing. If it were that we had that intelligence we surely would have acted. As I said before the plane was actually going to land in Mexico, not Belize and because of the presence of the Mexican air reconnaissance they could not have landed in Mexico and that was when they came back into Belize."

Again, despite the COMPOL's narrative that the plane was bound for Mexico, we have received credible evidence to the contrary. Our information says that police were directly told that the plane would land this morning between Rhaburn's Ridge and Indian Creek - which is just about where it did land.

We'll keep following the story.

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