Minister Kareem Musa Weighs in on Drug Plane Activity

Kareem Musa

While we were with the Minister of Home Affairs, we asked him how closely the government is working with regional counterparts to track and survey unknown aircrafts. Of note is that tackling narco-trafficking, including the illegal landing of drug planes and the use of Belize as a transhipment point was among the People’s United Party’s manifesto goals.  Here’s how Minister Kareem Musa responded.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“It still has not been confirmed. What is that telling us as a country?  It tells us that we are in effect locking off the known or traditional landing spots so I want to applaud the Commissioner of Police and the Belize Police Department for the fact that you are not hearing the landing in the spots that are known to receive these landings. And like the commissioner said, if we were to have a media event or a press conference every single time there is a diversion of an aircraft in our airspace, you would be with us every single night. And while it is for national security reasons and for intelligence purposes we cannot disclose that we are diverting planes, you can rest assure that there are many more diversions than actual landings. As so like the commissioner said, this one took place in a very remote, a high vegetation area in the south and we are still trying to get there. But at the same time, we have to up our efforts as best as we can to continue with these diversions because it is a problem in the last administration and in this administration, but we are employing our best efforts.  In terms of the parliamentary level, greater liaison with our bilateral partners to get more equipment that sort of thing, but I cannot go in depth in terms of what resources we have, in terms of what equipment we have and tools we have, but at the same time, greater cooperation with our counterparts in other countries is important.”