Orange Walk businessman says it is much ado about nothing

In our newscast last night, we reported that businessman Orlando De La Fuente was accosted in Chetumal on Tuesday and held by Mexican authorities for having various types of drugs in his vehicle which would have been imported into Belize. In other press reports in Chetumal, De La Fuente was accused of trading illegal drugs so he visited News Five today to give his side of the story, saying that the police were professional, but the tabloids were merciless.

Orlando De La Fuente, Wholesaler of Pharmaceuticals
“I had shipments from three different suppliers and they included, like most of what you would find in a pharmacy, Benadryl, Maalox, Licoden and some anti-inflammatory. And after about fifteen minutes, I also furnished them with invoices—they asked me if I had invoices—and after about fifteen minutes, they realized that the drugs were all made in Mexico, the pharmaceutical products were made in Mexico and I had original invoices from Mexican companies that accounted for every item I had in the shipment. And so after about maybe like twenty minutes, they told me that I could leave, which I did and I thought that was the end of it. I never knew that I was gonna be the featured, my photograph and the whole incident on Channel Ten last night in Chetumal on their television station. I was in about four of their newspapers yesterday and I think the articles were very misleading.”

De La Fuente says that for many years he has been trading in pharmaceuticals from various Mexican suppliers and importing them into Belize without difficulty because he has followed the process.