Sizeable Cocaine Seizure Incinerated
Brick by brick contained in bales of cocaine seized during a recent huge anti-drug operation were incinerated this afternoon at a safe location. The B.D.F. and police made the bust on the morning of February twenty-seventh off the Coastal Road, confiscating sixty-nine bales of the drug containing two thousand three hundred and ninety-four kilos that were inside a Gold Stream narco plane. The street value of the narcotic substance has been put at one hundred million dollars and it all went up in smoke today. Here is News Five’s Isani Cayetano with a report.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Consumed by a raging inferno, the tonnage of cocaine seized during an anti-drug operation on February twenty-seventh was incinerated this afternoon at an undisclosed location in Cayo District. The substantial shipment of narcotic, flown into Belize from Venezuela, was confiscated along with a Gulf Stream aircraft that landed in a remote area off the Coastal Road. Brick by brick, the consignment was fed to an intense fire.
Marco Vidal
ACP Marco Vidal, Commander of Operations
“Today, what is happening is that we have applied to the court for an order of destruction. That was granted this morning and today we have traveled all the way here from a safe location to this location of destruction where we will now engage in the destruction of the drugs, witnessed by the magistrate, the Clerk of Court, a Justice of the Peace, Scenes of Crime technicians, the Forensic [Department] and the prosecutor and the investigator.”
A total of sixty-nine bales were removed from the business jet and later housed at an unnamed site where the quantity was closely guarded around the clock.
ACP Marco Vidal
“Once we discover drugs or seize a lost quantity of drugs, the next process then is to go through the process of weighing each parcel. Once that is done and forensic [technicians] are satisfied that it has been done, we then apply to the court for an order to destroy the drugs. So, as I said, that has been done today and now we have moved the drugs from its location to this location of destruction.”
The sizeable haul is on record as one of the largest, if not the largest bust, in Belizean history. The process is painstaking and laborious. Each parcel is cut open, scrutinized by the team overseeing the disposal and tossed into the bonfire individually. The men and women tasked with destroying the drugs will be here until the last kilo is burnt.
ACP Marco Vidal
“We have sixty-nine parcels of cocaine, totaling over two thousand, three hundred and ninety-four kilograms. That’s what will be destroyed today.
Reporter
“Tied with or pretty close to the second largest bust in Belize’s history…”
ACP Marco Vidal
“That is correct. Right, it is one of the largest.”
While no one was arrested in connection with the bust, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that the department is monitoring a number of individuals suspected to be involved with narco-trafficking locally.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Of course, we have people that we are looking at who we suspect to be involved in these plane landings and we continue to monitor those persons and we continue to go after them and there are several other things that we have been doing that I am not going to share with the public where those persons are concerned.”
According to Operations Commander, ACP Marco Vidal, Belize’s war on drugs will continue to see a ramping up of efforts by local law enforcement to arrest the trafficking of narcotics through the country.
Marco Vidal
“As you know, the movement of drugs through our country, as well as in Central America, is becoming a frequent phenomena and our objective is to seize these drugs and arrest people and carry them before the court. So we foresee that other operations like these will be done, other operations conducted by the cartels of course and our mission is to ensure that we capture them before they can depart our country.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
