And to increase its surveillance over Belize's vast maritime space - the National Coast Guard is increasingly employing and deploying drones to monitor remote spaces and small vessels coming up from the south.
He discussed their utility:
Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant at Belize Coast Guard
"We studied the equipment well before we made the decision and this is the one that is most suitable for us so we are very happy with what we can do using those drones and I think the other 2 drones are expected sometime in January and we have already upgraded our camera systems so again focusing on technology in order to improve our operation efficiency."
"Indeed we have seen an increase in maritime activities our neighboring countries have reported an increase for example Mexico they had a seizure I think of four tons of cocaine over the past few months Guatemala and Honduras have seized 4.5 tons and 4 tons respectively, maritime traffic alone so we know there is an increase in Maritime activities. What we are trying to do is to improve our surveillance and that's why we have acquired these drones to support that we have improved our maritime surveillance capabilities in other areas using cameras and other technologies but also relying a lot on intelligence. It is very difficult tracking these small boats coming from South America with drugs. At Least in the air there is an air radar system that can pickup these vessels by aircraft. For us it's much more challenging trying to pinpoint one of those drug vessels on the surface."
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