Additional Charges Brought Against Illegal Guatemalan Farmers

Fifty-one-year-old Francisco Torres Sucup and fifty-six-year-old Luis Diaz Alballeros, both Guatemalan nationals, have been charged for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.  Sucup, who was shot below the left knee during an exchange of gunfire with B.D.F. and FCD rangers, remains hospitalized at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.  On Friday evening, a routine patrol conducted by a joint team encountered the pair approximately six hundred meters away from the Belize/Guatemala border.  They subsequently discovered a marijuana field with plants measured up to four feet in height.  When the officers approached the plantation, they heard the men talking and upon nearing the shed heard gunshots.  They then saw one of the men running from the thatch shed with a firearm.  The soldiers opened fire and struck Sucup in the left knee.  His accomplice, Luis Alballeros, was later captured and found in possession of a twelve gauge shotgun.  A search of the shed yielded fifteen, live twelve gauge cartridges and twenty-four, nine millimeter rounds.  The marijuana plants were uprooted and burnt. Sucup and Alballeros were both taken to the San Ignacio Police station.  The charges against them have been upgraded since they were found to be in Belize illegally and were also in possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.  Sucup remains in admitted at the K.H.M.H. in a stable condition.