Sergeant George Ferguson, Corporal Elmer Nah, Corporal Delwin Casimiro, PC Nelson Middleton, Armando Martinez, Moises Perez, Juan Sanchez, Heinrich Redecop, Johan Wall, Fredy Gongora, and Adonis Campos - these are the "Bladen Eleven" who have been arraigned in connection with the drug plane landed in the southern village on Thursday night.
You'll remember the commissioner describing a scene out of a movie: high powered rifles which were used in a shootout between the narcos and the police. But the police came out unscathed and made a bust of over 20 bales of cocaine and 5 assault rifles. However, the victory was short lived when those same officers realized that the men shooting back may have been some of their own. Four police officers are alleged to be part of the drug trade, and a fifth was found with even more weapons.
And today all 12 men and one woman found themselves in courtroom in Belmopan. Our news team was stationed outside and Courtney Menzies has this story.
The Bladen Eleven - they are the four cops and seven civilians who were charged with drug trafficking after the major bust following the drug plane landing in Bladen Village on Thursday night.
And today they went to court along with PC Manuel Caliz and his sister, Epifania Caliz, who, over this weekend, were along with Corporal Elmer Nah when they were caught with ammunition. The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, gave us an update:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"On Saturday night, Independence police were on a checkpoint. And, having received certain information, they attempted to stop two vehicles that were coming from the direction of where the plane had landed. Upon stopping those vehicles, one of the vehicle was occupied by corporal Nah, his wife, his daughter, and another police officer. A search of the vehicle lead to a discovery of one issued nine millimeter pistol and over one hundred point two two three rounds of ammunition. From what we believe, yes those ammunitions are police ammunitions, but Corporal Na is on leave, and so he ought not to be in position of the department's ammunition, particularly in such quantity. Based on that, he was detained. He is additionally charged with keeping unlicensed ammunition, that is in respect to the 100 plus rounds of 223 ammunitions that were found in the vehicle that he was in, himself and PC Caliz were both charged in respect of that."
So, the total count is 13 and our news team camped outside the courtroom until the men left, just after 4pm this evening.
Three of the men, Armando Martinez, Moises Adan Perez, and Juan Espinoza Sanchez, were represented by attorney Norman Rodriguez. They were charged jointly, along with the rest of the Bladen Eleven, with possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply, abetment in relation to that charge, and conspiracy to land a plane at an aerodrome without permission from the ministry.
Rodriguez explained that bail was offered to Epifania Caliz, but that the remainder of the men were placed on remand. He filed a submission for one of his clients, Perez, because of a heart condition confirmed by a doctor's note, but the magistrate said it was lacking info. The men will have to wait until Friday to see whether they will get bail.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney
"The moment I saw the charge of possession with intent to supply to another and I think there were 12 bales and so many kilograms, once its above 1 kilogram, the magistrate cannot grant bail and the magistrate did say that to them immediately. The law provides for bail to be granted by a judge if the magistrate cannot grant it or refuses to grant it and that can happen as early as this coming Friday."
"When you're talking about a person's freedom, it is something that should be dealt with on a daily basis, but that is the position right now in Belize where bail is heard only on Fridays, so we prepare the petition, have them sign it and then we bring it before the court."
He also said that there were some issues prior to today's court date.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney
"One of the things that was brought up by the last attorney, Attorney Gonzalez, is the extended detention of the clients. They were detained as early as 9-10 on Thursday night and they were not charge, in his case he said that his clients were charged beyond the 48 hours. Mine were charged within the 48 hours and then the charge was amended and then t was amended a whole 24-48 hours afterwards. But the sad part about it is that and this is something that seems to be happening a lot, because I have had clients complain, is that my clients were detained and we made every effort to try to locate Mr. Perez, no police officer here at Belmopan could give us some answers, in fact some of us were here as early as 11am Friday and it was not until in the evening I was able to meet with 4 of the clients that I came to see. It's a very sad situation because the police is supposed to be protecting rights and the constitution allows that for every citizen and persons who are within Belize, yet we continuously to have people telling us they can't give us any answers as to where our clients are when we go to these police stations. I'm not saying it happens every time, but it happens many times and even once is too much."
Their next court date is set for February 8th.
While the ComPol mentioned that there is an investigation team assigned to this case, he refrained from revealing the name of the lead investigator for their safety.
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