Confiscated Weed Gummies Arrived in Belize in Late January

The Belize Police Department has determined that one of their own, an officer who has been on interdiction since March 2021, was the intended recipient of a consignment of weed gummies that were shipped from the United States.  When the barrel arrived at the Port of Belize and customs officials inspected the shipment, they suspected that the sweets contained cannabis.  Those items were surrendered to the Anti Narcotics Unit and they, in turn, handed them over to the exhibit keeper for storage at the Queen Street Police Station.  As we’ve reported, the confections were discarded by that individual without approval from his superior, the commander of the Prosecutions Branch.  The weed gummies were disposed of at the Belize City Transfer Station and ultimately ended up on sale at Saint Luke’s Methodist School where dozens of children consumed them and fell sick.  Today, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams retread the sequence of events from the time law enforcement took possession of the shipment on January twenty-fifth to the dismissal of the officer in question.  We begin our newscast this evening with an interview with ComPol Williams on the matter.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Yes, the gummies were imported into the country via customs who discovered them in a barrel, and then police were called.  The Anti Narcotics Unit (ANU) retrieved the gummies and samples were taken and sent to the National Forensic [Science] Services for analysis because we did not know then what those gummies were or what they represent.  So, for us to have been sure, it was sent to the lab for testing and about three weeks ago, from what I was briefed yesterday, the boxes containing these gummies were taken to our national exhibit room in Belize City for safekeeping, pending the return of the results that were requested from the lab.  And sometime last week, again from what I was briefed, the exhibit keeper decided to dispose of these gummies by way of putting them in a garbage trailer that is kept inside the Queen Street Police Station compound.  Thereafter, the yardman at Queen Street took the trailer to the dumpsite at mile three on the [George Price Highway] and disposed of those gummies.  But the garbage man, likewise, or the yardman, also dug into the boxes and he too took some of those gummies, as well as other persons who were at the dumpsite at that particular moment.  The gummies were then brought back into the city by different persons and were later sold, as you all would know by now.  Up to yesterday, we had still not received the result from the National Forensic [Science] Services testing, but just this afternoon, after midday, I was informed by the director of the National Forensic [Science] Services that the test on the gummies have concluded and it is confirmed to contain cannabis.”