Video Images of a Drug Plane Landing in the North are Leaked
Two weeks ago, drug plane whistleblower, Edward Vincent Martinez held a press conference in Belize City providing details of illegal landings in the Jewel. While his commitment to a follow-up briefing with evidence has not happened, aerial footage of a suspected drug plane landing has been leaked to a Mexican media house. The aerial footage is shot in a night vision format showing an aircraft landing on a dirt road. Several vehicles arrive at the location, a person alights the plane before at least ten men go back and forth from the aircraft to the parked vehicles. Minutes later, the aircraft would be seen on fire. According to the Mexican news article by Contra Corriente, the landing was back in October 2018 when a plane had landed off the Progresso Road in Corozal. The plane was first seen by a villager on October twenty-fifth and police arrived on the scene to find the plane on fire between the stretch of road between Progresso and San Estevan Village. The article also purports that Belizean authorities were involved in the illegal activity. While these details cannot be confirmed, News Five has been reliably informed that the footage has been enhanced to show police officers from the north escorting the caravan with drugs inside. As we said this has not been confirmed, but today News Five asked ComPol Chester Williams about whether he is looking into this video and evidence. He says that with the police taking on the command of the Joint Intelligence Operation Centre from the Belize Defence Force, they will be able to better intercept illegal plane landings.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, ComPol
“I have not seen the video and if it is that plus TV has the video, I would ask that they share it with us and if it is that the video displays the involvement of officers; if they can be seen in the video being a part of the operations, then by any account, the video is good evidence. We surely will go after the officers once the evidence is there.”
Reporter
“I understand now the command is under the police department. It’s going from the B.D.F. to you all. Will this you envision—without casting any type of aspersions—do you think this will create an enhanced response to this ype of narco operations in Belize?”
Chester Williams
“Well I will first and foremost say that Lieutenant Colonel Amoa has been in that job for over two years, which is the tenure of the coordinator. And during the time that he has been there, he had done an exceptional job in coordinating our operations and how we respond to these clandestine plane landings and so forth. And now we have a very active, vibrant officer in the person of Senior Superintendent Grinage going to take over from Mister Amoa as the coordinator. And we expect that the work that Mister Amoa had been doing at JIOC will continue under the tenure of Mister Grinage and whatever we can do to enhance the performance and the results out of JIOC we are going to do on our side. And I am sure that the support from the B.D.F. will continue. After all, we have one ministry, one goal, one objective—to ensure that we reduce the amount of illegal plane landings in our country.”
The Progresso landing happened just after Orange Walk’s commanding officer David Chi and police constable Norman Anthony along with Peter Friesen and some Mexican nationals were charged for importing drugs into Belize. This was in connection with a fourteen million dollars cocaine bust in Tres Leguas near Blue Creek, Orange Walk.
