The incident with the St. James Tug has resulted in criminal charges brought against a "big-man" the Operations Manager of the Port of Big Creek. Operation Manager Gustavo Carillo was arrested this morning and arraigned today at the Belmopan Magistrate's Court on a single charge of "abetment to exiting Belize illegally." He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail of two thousand dollars. He was represented by attorney Hector Guerra.

He is the fourth person to be charged in this unprecedented case: the other three are Customs Officer Deon Castillo, Immigration Officer Bobby Flowers, and Port Authority Officer Keyron Young. They all signed off on the certificates of clearance for the vessel to travel.

Police allege that all four men - in the execution of their duties - allowed the St. James Tug and the ZMT 1 barge to go to Roatan, Honduras on July 25th on what turned out to be a mission that breached the state of emergency protocols.

And, when it came back on August 7th, all five crew members had the coronavirus.