Last night on 7news you saw the battle of Marybeth Wade and Chester Williams. Living in the US now - and out of the reach of Belizean law enforcement, she has bravely come forward to say she bought a gun license from a corrupt police officer. The Commissioner of police cancelled that license a month later - when he says he found out who she was. But the case highlites - at the very least - a major breakdown in the area of vetting persons for gun licenses - and it also suggests that someone very close to the process can get fraudulent vetting unto the Commissioner's desk for signing.
Jules Vasquez put together the narratives and counter-narratives of Chester and Marybeth to find what we've learned so far about the shadowy world of backdoor gun licenses:
Mary Beth Wade's 9mm Ruger Pistol - she bought it in 2021 after Commissioner Chester Williams approved her gun license.
She says a police officer offered her the hookup:
Marybeth Wade, Paid for Gun License
"I didn't have to go through the process. This person just contacted me and told me that gun licenses are giving out right now, you interested?"
"I got the gun licensed approved and signed the day before I paid for it."
The Commissioner said he signed the approval because her vetting was clean and he did not recognize her name:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"At the time of her application, it was just prior to Tanga's death or prior to her being Famous through social media with Tanga's death and other incidents where she was back and forth with other people on social media. So, I personally did not know who Marybeth was and she applied for a firearm license. Her vetting that came before me was squeaky clean."
Marybeth Wade, Paid for Gun License
"Who in Belize doesn't know who is Marybeth and Chester, of all persons doesn't know my name? And I am apparently a figure of the streets. I am into the hustling business. So how you would not know who is Marybeth Wade? You are trying to play lost? You say you are a lawyer and you are so intelligent, so how you would not know who is Marybeth Wade?"
And while the commissioner maintains he did not know her - someone in a prime position did because they gave her a fraudulent vetting from Special Branch
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"What I did was to call the special branch officer whose name appeared on the vetting as having conducted the vetting and so I called the officer and asked, do you know who Marybeth? He answered and said yes, I know. I asked, who is she? He began to tell me that Marybeth is accused or it is alleged she is one of the dur in Crooked Tree. I said, if you know that then why do you have a clean vetting on her? He said, no, I did not vet Marybeth. I said, well I have a vetting here with your name. He said, boss I did not vet her."
"So it turns out she might have paid somebody to fabricate a vetting with her application form and that came to me and it was approved."
Jules Vasquez
"So now, are you able to say who you paid or if that person is a police officer and how did they trick the process?"
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"The person is a police officer, the person is working with Chester, is working at Belmopan. That's all I will say."
Indeed, it would've to be someone close to the process, because how did her fraudulent vetting end up on the commissioner's desk - among the other presumably properly vetted files? That is a major unanswered question - pointing to a vast web of corruption - that should have given the Commissioner pause:
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"The one who helped me get the gun licensed, said to try see how much people you could find. The more people you find, then you will get a cut too. So, like okay then, no problem."
"It's like a whole scheme and I am not asking them, I am telling them that I got 5 people to buy the gun licenses too."
And they still have their gun license but Marybeth doesn't. Her one was cancelled. When the commissioner got this warning from the head of special branch on July 8, weeks after he had issued the gun license. He says he moved decisively to cancel it:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I said go an search Marybeth house now and take away the firearm, I will send the revocation letter. That was done. They went and confiscated the firearm and I sent the revocation letter. When I sent the revocation letter an attorney called and said ComPol I am representing Marybeth about her firearm. I said to him, Marybeth's firearm was obtained by means of fraud, I have revoked and I am not going to reissue."
Mary Beth has a very different account. She says there was no search and that he called her - and then sent the letter of revocation which was then dealt with by her attorney Dickie Bradley - who confirms that he was retained for the matter:
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"I was at Dickey Bradley office and he call him and told him, Chester, but this is your signature and this is not forged, I know your signature. And he said oh it was a mistake. Please, the amount of people. I know about 5 that I helped, so how mine was a mistake and their ones are not mistakes?"
Commissioner Williams claims it is another attorney who called him -followed by a call from Marybeth - from whom he tried to get the name of the corrupt officer:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"If you tell me who you paid then I can see what I can do for you. She refused to tell me who she paid and based on that she continued and said if you want, I can give you something too. I told her; well you better pat your brakes right there. I don't want anything from you."
Marybeth Wade flatly denies that she made any call to Williams and more so that she offered him anything. She says it is he who called her to - and this I the one thing they agree on - to find out the name of the officer.
That was mid 2021 though - we know that the commissioner knew yet he continued until recently to sign third party authorizations - a process that just stopped
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I can tell you now, what I will do going forward is that anybody who brings a gun license application to me, if that application is not for them, I am not going to action it. If you want to apply for a gun license, you go and apply for it personally. Don't go through nobody, because I'm not going to accept nothing from no third parties because that is where the problem seems to lie."
Jules Vasquez
"And those 5 people, they stayed with their gun licenses?"
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"They still have it up to now."
Jules Vasquez
"Wow! and all of them paid for it, they bought it for $7,500."
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"Bought, bought..."