Corozal North rep hails Police, Customs assault on Estero

Hugo Patt

There has been a noticeable increase in the number of contraband seizures reported in the Corozal District within the past few weeks.  That’s because customs and police have been working tirelessly to stem the flow of uncustomed goods entering the country from Estero. The community has been featured in the news at least three times over the past two weeks, most recently on Monday following a bust involving three persons smuggling marijuana across the border.  Earlier today, we caught up with Corozal North Area Representative Hugo Patt who told us that while contra banding may be the livelihood of many in Patchakan and Estero, the customs department has been doing a commendable job of arresting the activity.

Hugo Patt, Area Representative, Corozal North

“It is a concern that all of us share within the vicinity, Patchakan being the area where there is an entry point and an exit point.  We have, I am really glad with the police that they have been intervening because the issue with not only contraband, but the issue with alleged drugs and even when police have caught an amount of drugs that are coming through that really is a concern for all of us. I had a meeting with the village council of my particular community and were expressing that concern. As we speak we have some marathons being organized and it is never safe when you see vehicles coming out practically in a cat and mice game. And so it is unsafe for all of us but I know customs for a fact is doing extra work in the area and so is the police department. This does put me in a difficult situation, you know we had the papaya industry that closed down couple of years ago and the people in the rural communities particularly the villages they depend heavily on sugar cane and sugar cane is a seasonal crop. Whenever you have crop you would not see the kind of incidences in contraband but when the crop is off, really there is little that can be done and you know people will try to stretch a lee dollar to go cross and now as I said customs has a job to do and they will have to do it.”