Customs officers charged in case of missing container

Police have charged two senior and a junior Customs officer who are suspected of conspiring to fraudulently release a container believed to be filled with the illegal drug, Pseudoephedrine. The trio is thirty-six year old Carl Augustine and thirty-two year old Aruny Perez, both Grade One Customs Examiners, and twenty-one year old Michael McKenzie, a Grade Two officer. All three appeared in court this morning and were charged with Forging an Official Port Authority document, while Perez was hit with the additional offence of Forging an Official Customs document for the container’s waybill. At a press conference today, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crispin Jeffries, explained how the men managed to pull off the job.

Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
“Two separate set of forgery took place; one document that the Customs controls and the other that the Port controls. Those were forged and it is those documents that those persons have been arrested and charged for.”

Marion Ali
“Who forged the documents and how did they manage to do this?”

Crispin Jeffries
“Well, the procedure in place now is that only a limited amount of individuals are authorized to sign certain documents that would go between the Customs and the Port Authority. That would then authorize the Port Authority personnel to lift and load a container. Once those documents were forged and presented, the container was moved. Without that the container would not have been removed or moved from it’s location onto a bed to be moved out of the compound.”

Marion Ali
“This particular person whose signature they …”

Crispin Jeffries
“They forged the signature of one Mr. Alpuche who is one of the authorized persons that would sign that release form for that container to be loaded before it leaves. We admit that the level of cooperation is not to the level that we want it and that has been reported of course, and action has been taken to correct that.”

Marion Ali
“Any idea where the suspect cargo might be?”

Crispin Jeffries
“No, we are still searching. There is some information that we are acting on as we speak but there’s not a lot to go on in the west.”

Marion Ali
“Cotton Tree?”

Crispin Jeffries
“In the west, just in the west.”

Marion Ali
“The gentleman to whom it is consigned, any developments with him?”

Crispin Jeffries
“The specific document was saying that it was consigned to a gentleman in Spanish Lookout. That information was verified days ago and that container was not in fact consigned to that individual and was not taken to that individual. He knew nothing about that specific container, he had other containers that had arrived and he had received but not that specific container. In this specific case is that it was destined for Spanish Lookout; the consignee, based on the documentation. We are now looking for Mr. Hutchinson, who is the person who drove the truck that moved that container from the compound and is now alleging that he was held up and the container taken away from him; a similar type of report that was made in two of the cases prior to this one. We can confirm that Mr. Hutchinson may have been the driver that took a previous container out of the Port compound.”

News Five understands that Hutchinson is communicating only through his lawyer, Elson Kaseke. Police have found the towhead which they believe transported the container. The discovery was made in Cotton Tree Village on Thursday and today the vehicle sits in the police compound in Belmopan. Investigators are also looking at trailer which they found stripped. Today in court, Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb took no pleas because the matter is indictable. Reports are that Prosecutor, Senior Superintendent Robert Mariano objected to bail on the grounds that the container is still missing and that the investigation is ongoing and the men may interfere with witnesses. Attorneys for the defendants, Michael Peyrefitte and Carlo Mason, were however, able to convince the Chief Magistrate to offer bail in the sum of six thousand dollars each. The case was adjourned until October twentieth.