Colombians charged for 52 parcels of cocaine and weapons
In news from the courts, three Colombian nationals appeared in the Dangriga Magistrate’s Court after being busted on Saturday with fifty-three parcels of cocaine, five nine millimeter pistols and two hundred and four live rounds of assorted ammunition. The men are twenty-seven year old Alberto Bedoya, thirty-seven year old Hernan Dario O’Quendo and forty-two year old Yeney De Jesus Echavaria Manco; all of Antigua Medellin. As we reported on Tuesday night, they were charged with, Kept Prohibited Ammunition, Kept Unlicensed Firearm and Ammunition and two counts of Possession of a Controlled Drug with intent to supply. But in court, they also had to answer for disembarking their boat without the consent of the Immigration Authorities when they went ashore in Independence Village. All three defendants pleaded guilty to the charges and were each fined a total of twenty thousand dollars for the drugs. Five thousand dollars were to be paid forthwith and the balance by the end of September. Another fine of four thousand, five hundred dollars was imposed for the immigration charge and two thousand had to be paid up front. But Bedoya, O’Quendo and Echavaria are behind bars tonight because they were sentenced to three years for prohibited ammunition, five years for unlicensed ammunition and another five years for the unlicensed firearm. That’s a total of thirteen years, but the men will only spend five years in prison since the sentences are to run concurrently. The bust was made at a farmhouse two miles northwest of Independence Village, where the drugs were hidden inside an icebox.
SO how did these guys got a quick case big charge and the other persons caught didnt get this same treatment? because of their positions? come on laws should apply to every one they should have done this to the other officers that wre caught too
The Belize gun laws are so dumb…
They claim that PROHIBITED Firearms and ammunition are so dangerous that no citizen should have them…. BUT YET
The sentence for Prohibited Ammunition is two years less than the sentence for unlicensed ammunition… Unlicensed ammunition is the type that citizens can have with a license from the PD.
this is beautiful….here we can see clearly the problem with Belize in general….the crime situation…the political corruption….etc……the problem is we are not being real with ourselves…the real problems are not disscussed because everyone is either involved or afraid of the reprocusions……here we can see these 3 columbians getting a slap on the wrist for a whopping 52 parcels of coacaine….now if it were a member of one of the street gangs they would want to lock them up n throw away the key when in fact guys like these columbians are the root cause of most of our street wars……might as well they just took the drugs n guns n not waste our time and money to false procecute these guys that will probably be freed long before their lenghty 5 year term
Belizean Citizens get caught stealing bottles get about eight years in prison.While Colombian Cartels get five years for entering our country undocumented carrying not only drugs but also weapons.What the F is this?Belizean last and Cartels first?I do not condone stealing but just look at the injustice that is been done to our people.
The laws of Belize are well orchestrated to protect corrupted individuals and murderers working under the directorship of their political bosses, there is something fishy about these Columbians pleading guilty to these charges, I am assuming that they only want to get into the inside of the prison to see how it is set up or maybe to do a hit on the Belizeans that were responsible for the confiscation of the 80 bales look out for any visitors they may have. Remember My Legacy B4 My People.
So, had they not had the firearms and ammo, and they had checked in with imigration, they would only have had to pay a 20,000.00 fine each? Of which each was required to pay 5k up front. 52kg is alot of cocain, but had they only been caught with the cocain they would have each paid 5k and walked out of court. No jail time? That seems like a light penalty for having that much cocain.
this is why i said the belize justice system is a joke.
the media needs to do their jobs and ask the tough questions.
I think Chimilio should resign from the Football Federation of Belize and give football a chance.
I do not understand why the goverment make out a big deal out of this when he does not realized that these people brings money into our country and not only that also provides jobs to many people. Hopefully these guys are set free soon they are no hard to our country think about