Obeah man busted in Cayo
Several weeks ago we reported on the commission of the previously unknown crime of ?attempting to leave Belize with more than the prescribed amount without first having reported the matter to the supervisory authority.? Today we are treated to another instalment in the series ?odd offences?, which comes courtesy of the San Ignacio police. Jacqueline Woods travelled west and returned… spellbound.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Thirty-nine year old Elijio Yanez a naturalized Belizean originally from Guatemala, claims to predict people?s future and to have helped hundreds of people with their problems. But there was nothing in his cards, candles, puro, crow?s feet or the wings of this dead parrot that could keep him from the discipline of the law. Today, Yanez appeared in magistrate?s Court in San Ignacio charged with the offence of Pretending to Tell Fortune. We are not sure just how long Yanez has been practicing his craft out of this small concrete structure next to his residence on Tulip Street, but last Friday area residents called authorities complaining about a foul smell coming from the building.
Sgt. Gilroy Nicholas
?The scent of what you call cigar or puro. As a result, the police visited the area and searched the premises of Mr.Yanez and they found an altar and which had on a number of cigars and other items which we suspect was used for doing black magic.?
?We found some deer head, dead parrot, gibnut head. We found a statute; wooden things made out in the shape of men, pictures, lots of pictures of some prominent residents of both here in San Ignacio and all over the country.?
Police say they are not sure if the pictures, mostly of men, are those of Yanez?s clients or targets of his powers. Nicholas says during the search they also found a large number of exercise books that contained records of advances that were paid to Yanez. Nicholas says the case is the first time in many years that someone has been charged with such an offence.
Sgt. Gilroy Nicholas, O.C. San Ignacio
?Well whenever you are defrauding someone it is illegal. It is an offence because if we would have had a complainant we could have charged him for other things.?
Nicholas says a first offence on such a charge carries a fine of up to three hundred dollars or six months in prison. A second offence can cost as high as five hundred dollars or one-year imprisonment. This morning, Yanez pled guilty to the charge and was ordered to pay one hundred and fifty dollars. As for his possessions, you guessed it, everything will be burned. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
When contacted by News 5, fellow practitioners of the occult arts could not agree whether or not the spells cast by Yanez would be cancelled by the burning of the paraphernalia…Yes, I am making this last bit up…but the rest is true.
