He is accused of running an illegal gun licensing operation out of the police headquarters in Belmopan, and today, regulator in the firearms office, Corporal Oscar Itche was charged for 10 counts of forgery.
He pled not guilty for all 10 charges and is scheduled to re-appear in court on the 28 of October. He is represented by attorney Leeroy Banner.
Neither the cop nor his attorney spoke today in Belmopan - but the Commissioner of police spoke plenty yesterday. He explained how as Firearms Clerk, Itche allegedly used photocopies of the Compol's signature to create fake gun licences:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"One of the requirements is that the gun dealers are not to accept any copy of an approval letter. The approval letter must be in its original format and every firearm approval I signed, I sign in blue ink. I do not sign in black ink for the simple fact that you could photocopy and if you copy the ink will be black and some people might not be able to tell the difference. Secondly, we invested in a number of seals, because we try to move away from the stamps because the stamps were more easily replicated and so we bought these expensive seals that we use for firearm. We had one seal for commissioner of police and that seal is used for all special protection license. The district formations also got a seal, but their seal can only be use for farmer licenses, as you know the districts approves farmers licenses and then dangerous goods office which is downstairs also got a seal for dangerous goods and that is used for security companies and explosive approvals. So, when I went and I saw the documents that were being accepted at the particular gun dealer, I noticed that many of the signatures were copied and further inspection of them, I noticed that the seal for the special protection was not the commissioner of police seal, but rather the dangerous goods office seal which would not be on a special protection approval. A search of his computer that he uses at the police headquarters resulted in the discovery of some of the same letters in his computer. So, it shows that he was manufacturing these false approvals in his computer in his office."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Are the people known criminal elements or?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Majority of them are of Asian descent, or Mennonites."
So far, police investigation suggests that there were 28 fraudulent gun licenses issues and sold for three thousand dollars each. Most of the licenses were used to purchase guns at a single store in Belmopan.
Again, Itche has pleaded not guilty to these 10 counts. It is the second time he has been criminally charged. In September of 2019, he was charged with harm of a woman and her child in a domestic dispute.
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