Last night we told you about the 6 men who the Coast Guard caught off
the coast of Punta Gorda town. The group comprised four businessmen of
Chinese descent from Corozal and Punta Gorda, along with two other
locals. The BDF spotted them picking up a package within Belizean
waters from a vessel that seemed to have come across form Guatemala.
When the Coast Guard intercepted them - they had an icebox of shrimp on
board, along with a Case of Corona beer.
They were detained for what looked like a whole bunch of offences, and
Immigration put them up at the Frontier Hotel pending review for
quarantine.
But the Ministry of Health said it had no interest in quarantining them
since they had not crossed into Guatemala. And then Customs said that
they would only warn them for the Corona beer - which customs then
falsely claimed to have confiscated. Our sources tell us that the beer
was not confiscated after all - but it was consumed right at the hotel.
And then police said they had no charge for them.
That is until the social media pressure started coming down - and last
night the commissioner of police told us that they would be charged for
failure to give a proper reason to explain their movements outside of
curfew. But by the time he told us that yesterday, PG police had
already lost track of them, and last night police sent out an internal
notice to seek the men at a checkpoint.
We understand that they were charged and will appear in Punta Gorda
court on Monday.