Customs Department exhibits latest contraband
Contraband is a never ending problem in Belize and as taxes on liquor and cigarettes rise the problem will only get worse. Today the Customs Department invited the media to inspect the latest booty confiscated from smugglers.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
The bottles of assorted liquor and cartons of cigarettes are among the eclectic collection of contraband goods confiscated over the past three weeks at two different check points on the northern highway. The items valued at a total of forty-five thousand dollars are believed to have been smuggled into the country for commercial purposes. According to Customs Investigation Unit Operations Officer Miguel Uk, September is one of the peak months for smuggling.
Miguel Uk, Operations Officer, Custom Investigation Unit
“We have had check points at the Carmelita junction and also for the last two weeks we have had check points at the Boom junction and what you are seeing here are the results of seizures on those two particular checkpoints. Some of them we encounter it where by people abandon them, probably hide them along the roadside before they come into the checkpoints. So they just— instead of getting caught with the goods, they just abandon it and decide to go their own way.”
The smugglers have been using private vehicles to transport some of the goods but sixty percent of the items seized were found on public transportation.
Miguel Uk
“On this particular three weeks here we have actually dealt with about four individuals which we actually caught them on their private vehicles; that is four of them we have dealt with. Most of it—like I tell you—is being confiscated off the public transport, that is the buses you know. And like you asked me earlier they are getting innovative because they are suing the public transport and when we search the buses nobody claim for it.”
In one incident, custom officers came across this outboard engine that was believed to have been powering a boat used to ferry a supply of contraband across the Rio Hondo. Uk says they have been working hard to stop the contraband but because they have limited resources it has been a challenge securing the number of entry points starting off from the Corozal Free Zone.
Miquel Uk
“From the Free Zone area you could actually walk it behind the customs areas and we start from right up north from the Santa Elena border all the way up to La Union that is across the blue creek area, you are dealing practically with about probably sixty miles of territory along the Rio Hondo river. On my estimate you probably have between fifteen to twenty illegal points of entry which it is very, very difficult to access through the jungle so you find out it is very, very difficult for us to do.”
The hope is that this boat and pickup truck supplied by the Ministry of Finance will help custom officers reach the most difficult areas in the northern districts.
Casmon Middleton, O.I.C. Investigation Unit
“As you know we do enforcement duties nationwide but our problem more lies in the northern area, the northern district areas of Corozal and Orange Walk so the ministry has find it fitting for us— to assist us in giving us a couple vehicles.”
“In addition to that we have gotten a launch and we have a station posted in Orange walk and one presently in Consejo so that will assist us greatly where it has to do with contraband issue in the north, in the northern areas.”
Uk says depending on the kinds of goods confiscated in most instances the items are either destroyed or donated.
Miquel Uk
“We find perishables in some instances it will be distributed to charitable institutions then you probably talk about the institution such as the B.D.F., the Coast guard we would donate certain perishable items to them and when we say certain, it will be vegetables which are not high risk. Then in the case of liquor in some instances it will be auction sale; we would sell it by auction. In the case of beer you know, we in no way would give it out; those are destroyed.”
“The liquor itself like I tell you we auction sell some of them because there are certain restrictions we have to put labels on it so we could put it on the local market.”
The cigarettes are stockpiled on certain dates and burned.
Critics point out that much of the smuggling from Mexico and the Free Zone is carried out by large scale entrepreneurs operating with the cooperation of high ranking officials.
