You've heard the Comptroller of customs complain about the criminal charges brought against Jr. Officer Deon Castillo. He's the customs officer who signed off on the departure of the Big Creek tugboat A.J. Ellis's trip to Honduras. He was charged with abetting that vessels exit from Belize. As we told you there were also charges for an Immigration Officer and a Port Authority staffer who all signed off on the voyage.
And tonight the Belize Port Authority has put its voice into the fray denouncing the charge against Young in the strongest possible terms and calling on the Commissioner of Police to withdraw the charges forthwith.
The Port says that Keyron Young processed a Notice of Departure from Shipping Agent, Banana Enterprises Limited and makes the point that this departure would have been commonplace with cargo vessels frequently operating between Belize and ports in Guatemala and Honduras.
And so, Young seeing nothing out of the ordinary stamped the Notice of Departure and emailed it back to the Shipping Agent. He did all this from the Belize City office, never even setting foot in Big Creek Port.
The Port claim that the charge, quote: "Seriously undermines the legitimacy of the work involved in ensuring smooth operations at port facilities throughout Belize". End quote
The Port's question now is: who will clear the next vessel scheduled to leave?
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