3 countries join to make major cocaine bust

A three-country operation foiled a cocaine run worth some sixteen million Belize dollars on Thursday evening in international waters off Belize’s coast. Police tell News Five that five Belizeans and a Honduran were intercepted in a boat some twenty-five miles east of Caye Caulker after being chased by personnel from the Belize Police Department, B.D.F. Maritime Wing, and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Mexican authorities were also contacted as the boat headed north, believed to be on a trip from Colombia. As an international team of law enforcement personnel attempted to board the vessel, shots were fired and the Honduran, Jesus Castillo Orellano was shot and injured. He is currently hospitalized in Mexico. The Belizeans aboard the craft have been identified as William Martinez, twenty-five; Kevin Lincoln Smith, also twenty-five; forty-five year old Miguel Perez; and forty-eight year old Francisco Nunez, all from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. The men are presently detained in Cozumel. During the bust, police confiscated one thousand, three hundred and fifty kilos of cocaine, a rifle, two pistols, a satellite phone, two cellular phones, two VHS radios, and a global positioning system. Mexican authorities have confiscated the boat.