Customs-Police back to good relations

Colin Griffith

There were back to back reports of contraband activity from cops in the North in April. First, a cop and a special constable were caught in Orange Walk on video, and then two cops in Corozal tried to smuggle contrabanded clothing past Customs and were chased down in a video quickly leaked online and to the press. Reports since then suggest that the capture of the Corozal cops – Constable Elston Rojas and Corporal Abner Marroquin – has created hard feelings between the two agencies. And while they will butt heads from time to time, Comptroller of Customs Colin Griffith told us on Monday that such incidents are few and far between as the lines of communication are open, especially in the North.

Colin Griffith, Comptroller of Customs

“I can say that the relationship between Customs and Police is very good. You do have isolated incidents, but that doesn’t speak to exactly what happens between customs and police. And I would never say that the relationship between customs and police is sore in any way whatsoever. Because of these incidents, we have had discussions with the police high command. I can say specifically that our assistant comptroller in charge of Corozal met with the commander for the Corozal area, but there is no souring of any relationship between Customs and Police.”