Key witness in bank heist murdered
It once carried the nickname of Rambo Town, based on its reputation as home to ruthless gunslingers who shot first and asked questions later. The image of Orange Walk may have softened in recent years, but this morning a cold blooded murder reminded residents that old ways die hard. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports from the scene.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Thirty-one year old Claudio Cardenas had just gotten home after working at a karaoke night in Belize City when he was gunned down. Ingrid Melendez, who did not wish to appear on camera, said Cardenas, her common law husband, was already inside the house when someone loudly knocked on the front door. Melendez says Cardenas went to see who it was and following an exchange of words, he stepped outside… and that’s when she heard gunshots.
Voice of Ingrid Melendez, Common Law Wife
“Some five minutes after he shot him in the chest. And when I saw him that he shoot my husband, I had my daughter with me, and then when I gone to hold my husband that dah when he shoot the next shot.”
That bullet grazed Melendez’s right lower leg.
Voice of Ingrid Melendez
“I ran outside to catch my husband with my daughter. Then when I saw him, he shoot wah next one and I move my daughter and that dah when he catch me on my leg.”
The gunman, who is described as being dark complexioned of East Indian descent, then ran from the yard and jumped inside a black Toyota car, which apparently was waiting for him. Cardenas was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital but died soon after he arrived.
Today, while authorities are still trying to find the killer, the police are not without a motive. Cardenas was one of the men arrested for the spectacular March 2001 heist at the Belize Bank in San Ignacio…and it is believed he was going to cooperate with the cops and appear as a key witness for the prosecution. That trial was expected to take place within a few weeks. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
The 2001 robbery of the bank in San Ignacio took place over the ninth of March weekend during the running of La Ruta Maya canoe race. In that heist thieves entered a storm drain running under the building and drilled up through the concrete floor into the vault. Around two hundred and seventy thousand dollars was believed stolen.
