High powered B.D.F. skiff stolen in P.G.

When we last saw it in October, it was patrolling the Sapodilla Cayes for illegal fishing and drug running… But today the B.D.F.’s formidable thirty-two foot skiff with its twin two hundred horsepower engines is no longer on duty. Sometime on Friday night or early Saturday morning, the valuable vessel was stolen from its mooring in Joe Taylor Creek just outside of Punta Gorda. By sunrise a sea and air search was underway, and on Saturday evening, word was received that the boat–or what was left of it–had been found by Guatemalan authorities near Puerto Barrios. The Yamaha engines and four fifty-gallon drums of gasoline were nowhere to be seen. A B.D.F. spokesman told News 5 that the boat was locked and at least one guard was supposed to be on uninterrupted guard duty at the site. The Belize Defence Force has launched an investigation to see what went wrong, while negotiations are underway to have the hull returned to Belize.