Where did U.S. fugitive get his Belize passport?
On last night’s newscast, we reported on the arrest of a U.S. fugitive from justice arrested by Belize Police at San Pedro, where he had apparently been living for a number of years. While James Robert Harold, who took the name of Samuel Foster when he came to Belize, awaits extradition in Hattieville prison to answer to authorities in America, it might be interesting to look closely at what he did in Belize. The crimes he is charged with include uttering a forged document, knowingly making a false statement and obtaining a passport by false representation. In other words, Harold did not possess a forged Belize passport; he had a real one that he allegedly obtained falsely. The question arising is whether this passport is one of the hundreds sold by Gabby Affif and other agents associated with the 2002 passport scandal. If it is, why wasn’t Harold, alias Foster, busted much earlier since it was abundantly clear to immigration authorities exactly which passports had been illegally purchased. If not, then the perhaps more disturbing question is how could someone who just washed up on Belize’s shores on their own manage to produce enough bogus backup documents to easily obtain a Belize passport. Hopefully, someone in Belmopan will care enough to connect the dots before the prisoner is turned over to the FBI.