Narco Jet Lands in Chetumal Aiport, Authorities Seeking for Two Others

Early this morning, the news spread that one of three narco jets was forced to land at an airport in neighbouring Chetumal.  Mexican and Belizean authorities were tracking the three-drug planes that had left South America with plans to land somewhere in Central America and Mexico.  According to Mexican news outlets, around one o’clock in the morning, the Integrated Air Surveillance System of the Mexican Air Force detected three planes that entered the state of Quintana Roo illegally.  An immense anti-drug operation was mobilized by the authorities in Chetumal immediately.  An army helicopter fired warning blasts and forced one aircraft to descend at the Chetumal International Airport in front of the Federal Police headquarters.  A crew member attempted to escape, but was captured by police. Inside the plane, authorities found more than a ton and half of cocaine inside the twin-engine Hawker-type jet with no license plate.  As for the two other planes, it is believed that they escaped into Belizean airspace.  It is one of the biggest drug busts in this area, in which cargo, narcos and the aircraft have been seized.  Here in Belize, Commissioner Chester Williams says his officers were monitoring the planes’ paths. 

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We did have last night a number of three tracks that was coming our way and as we normally do we will deploy our officers to the respective areas where we would anticipate that these planes may land. Around two a.m. this  morning one of the planes flew over one of the areas that our officers were posted and they must have gotten wind of something and they just flew over. A couple of minutes later we were notified that it did land in Chetumal airport. It goes to show the effort of our police officers in Belize. Even though we are not as equip as we liked to be and not as equip as our counterparts around us we have been able through our efforts to prevent a number of these planes from landing and you saw what happened. It went and landed on a licensed, major airstrip in Chetumal. As a matter of fact it is the Chetumal International Airport. So it goes to show the desperation of these drug traffickers and the extent to which they would go to transport their cargo. I want to say kudos to our security forces for a job well done. This is a nightly occurrence. It is not only last night. Every night we have between two and three sometimes four tracks coming our way. So all of this is adding to the strain that our department is under because we had a number of areas that we would normally deploy officers to and it is a whole night occurrence. You have to be there from early up to the time we would get clearance that these plans have landed in either Guatemala or Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras. These are the four main areas where they would go and land.”