It's a striking visual image: a drug plane set on fire on a paved highway in broad daylight. It happened bright and early on Sunday morning on a rural two-lane highway in Central Quintana Roo - not far from Felipe Carillo Puerto.
The Mexican Ministry of Defence had been tracking the jet and when it landed there was a shootout with the Mexican Army.
With the support of the Navy an operation was deployed in the vicinity, with two "tanks" and a helicopter, to search for the alleged drug traffickers.
A search of the nearby area led to the discovery of a truck, which was carrying 13 parcels of suspected cocaine weighing 66 pounds. Preliminary estimates are that it is valued at approximately 4.9 million dollars.
So, how this all this tie into Belize?
At a police press conference this morning, Police Commissioner Chester Williams said that this same jet would have landed in Northern Belize, but law enforcement was prepared and ready to intercept it as soon as it touched down:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"On Saturday night, we got information about a tracking coming out of Central America and maybe coming our way. As we would normally do, we deployed our human and other assets to different possible landing spots. And the team that went into the Chunnox area encountered a portion of the road that was well prepared and well-lit with lanterns in the form of an airstrip. And so, the team of security forces remained in the area concealed, awaiting the plane. At that time, we had received information that the plane was approaching our airspace. And so, we waited there, hoping that the plane would have made a landing. But, it would appear as if the persons who were supposed to be the ground crew for the plane might have spotted the security forces in the area and relayed the message to the plane. And so, the plane just flew over, went, and made a forced landing in Mexico on a highway. So, again, it is another instance where we can see that the efforts of our security forces have warded off planes to go and land elsewhere. And there are a number of these, as I've always said, that while we have a few that land in our country, the amount that we have deterred, we are never given credit for. But, our presence and our operational efforts have deterred a number of planes and forced them to land in either Mexico or Guatemala."
"We have long known that we do have facilitators of these illicit activities in Belize. It is nothing new to us. We know who some of them are, but again, getting the evidence to prosecute them is a different story."
"We just have to continue trying, and hopefully, very soon, we'll be able to nab some Belizeans with them."
The plane flew out of South America - Mexican news reports say it left from Colombia.
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