Email

Print

And, Jules Vasquez found that he seems to have taken his personal security very seriously with a virtual armory of high-powered weapons. Here's his story:

This gun- a semi-automatic M4 Carbine rifle owned by Ricardo Borja. It's one of 10 - yes 10 - that he had a license for. They include four rifles: two semi-automatic and two bolt action rifles, and six 9-millimeter pistols. Investigation by 7News shows that these licenses were issued between March of 2021, and July of 2022. 10 guns licensed in 17 months with the approval of the Commissioner of Police. On August 21st, we only knew about two licenses - and the Compol said their issuance was justified:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I think the accusations of criminal fraud came after the issuance of the gun license."

Jules Vasquez:
"Sir, he got gun license when he was in sixth form?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"No."

Jules Vasquez:
"Those accusations came against him when he was a sixth form student."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I'm not too sure about that, but like you said, he is a businessman, or he was a businessman, he owned a consultancy and I think he was also engaged in real estate and he did apply for gun licenses and I can tell you, I was the one who approved those licenses. He did produce all the requisite documents and proof that he owns a business and he was generating funds and so he would fall within the category of those persons and in addition to that, there was no conviction that he had for any crime, yes there's accusations, like there's any accusations made against people but again, he was never taken to court on those accusations."

"Certainly, the young man did produce good credentials of being a legitimate businessman, engaged in different activities business wise and based on that, in my judgement, I issued the gun license, I have no remorse in issuing that, it's not like he had used the license firearm to commit a crime. He in this case is a victim of a crime, and I don't think we should vilify him for that."

The Compol cleverly cut the conversation to sympathy for a murder victim - but how deep is their connection?

This gun was pictured on the back seat of this 2021 Toyota Tacoma - bought in July, 2022 from a car dealership reportedly linked with the Commissioner of Police, Cars 501- a link which he denies:

Jules Vasquez
"There's a car dealership named 501 cars., Right?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"There you go again being misled. Let me tell you. If you want to know something, ask me."

"Jules again, be careful of the road you're going down. I am just warning you. Because you're imputing now that those cars belong to me. That is not true! 501 cars is some young bway who owns that who advertise cars for different people. All kinds of people he advertises cars for. That's not for Chester Williams."

"I do have a few cars for sale."

Of course, collecting fancy cars and guns was only one of Borja's pursuits, he was a land agent and one who was involved - by his own admission in many suspect schemes - he says with Placencia's Frick De Meyere - who was today detained in Belmopan for questioning.

Voice of: Ricardo Borja
"I knew they were creating different names, I knew that they were creating passports. I never did any passports, I never created any titles, and Frick had brought it up once to me and he was like did you look at the passports, and I was like not really I just[……]and he was like dude, I told those guys to create a better passport because you can look at it and know that it's fake, that it's not real. And I was like okay I'm not even gonna entertain you with that, you know…"

We did reach out to the Commissioner for comment on this story - but up to newstime he had not responded. Our reports say Borja's 2021 Tacoma sold for close to 90 thousand dollars. It was one of many high-end vehicles that Borja kept.