Illegal logger caught in Orange Walk

He walked into the forest, chopped down some mahogany trees, cut them into blocks, and was hauling them to Orange Walk Town. But Forestry Department officials disrupted forty-year-old Andrew Adolphus’s illegal logging operation late last week when they confiscated his trailer full of timber at the Tower Hill Bridge. Around six on Thursday evening, Adolphus drove up to the checkpoint towing a boat on a trailer. Inside were sixty-eight pieces of mahogany. He was arrested on the spot and taken to Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court on Friday where he pled guilty to the charge of unlawful possession of forest produce. Adolphus was fined five hundred dollars and ordered to pay the money by the tenth of July or in default go to jail for six months. The Magistrate additionally ordered Adolphus, under the supervision of the Forest Department, to replant ten mahogany trees. If he fails to comply with that order, he will be sent to jail for ninety days. Adolphus would not say where he cut the immature trees, but officials believe he stole them from private property in rural Orange Walk. This is not the first time that Adolphus has been in trouble with the Forest Department over illegal logging. In April, officials caught up with him near Carmelita Village and also confiscated a trailer-load of hot wood. For that offence, he was fined two hundred and fifty dollars. According to forestry regulations, a tree felled by permit on Crown land must be at least seventy-eight inches in diameter. But if a developer is seeking to use private or leased property for agricultural purposes, the Forest Department may issue a salvage permit, which allows for the extraction of trees of any size. Adolphus had neither type of permit, and an official from the department told News Five by telephone that the confiscated logs were well below the minimum legal requirement. The approximate value of the estimated seven hundred and eighty-five board feet is five hundred dollars. It is believed that the logs were destined for a sawmill in Shipyard. The confiscated logs, trailer, and small aluminium skiff are now at the Forestry Department compound in Orange Walk and anyone interested in buying can place bids at the office.