Contraband Detection Equipment Coming

Jose Abelardo Mai

Minister Mai was more than happy to receive the fuel award and said that the contraband trade is an ongoing problem that his ministry tries to abate through joint efforts of the Police, B.D.F. and Customs Department.  And with the contraband of even livestock, the ministry will soon be detecting contraband meat through technology the rest of the region already installed has.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security & Enterprise

“The movement of animals across the borders worries us now. I was told that there are contraband pigs coming in now from the Mexican side. I was given that information this morning. It worries not to that extent, but it does because it shows that they are moving animals across from other countries into Belize and that scares me, although Mexico does not have African swine fever nor Classical Swine Fever. The movement of animals is something that is a little risky from one country into Belize. We are free of that; we don’t have a problem with it. So we have to step up our quarantine measures; we have to step up our surveillance measures because id we are to get African swine fever in Belize, the industry is over. This is what destroyed fifty percent of China’s swine industry.  We are signatories to these agreements that we will put x-rays for organic products that come into the airport. The x-ray machine will pick it up. We have a Cabinet paper right now in the pipeline. We hope to get it approved and start installing the x-ray machines that pick up organic-based products.”

The upgrade coming in the next few weeks will also include a canine unit to help detect contraband products.