New boss, same hard-working G.S.U. – multiple drug busts

It may have flown quietly below the radar at the beginning of the month when officers within the Belize Police Department were being transferred to various positions, but the Gang Suppression Unit is now under the control of a new top cop.  As of July first, the GSU welcomed Superintendent Andres Makin as its new commander.  Since then, the task force has been openly called out for allegedly attacking the younger brother of fellow policeman Inspector Fitzroy Yearwood.  GSU personnel have also been busy cracking down on the illegal marijuana trade by raiding the homes and properties of suspected drug peddlers.  On Monday night, officers descended on George Street where they recovered two hundred and ninety-four grams or just about a pound of marijuana from an open lot and no arrests were made.  The GSU offensive has been ongoing since Friday when the home of George Street boss Shane ‘Mud’ Harris was stormed.  Inside the residence a quantity of weed was found, and while four men were subsequently arrested, police did not catch up with Harris until Sunday.  The group appeared before the lower court on Monday where Degron Joseph, Charles Fortune, Cameron Scott and Christian Robateau, along with Harris, were all arraigned.  The GSU’s biggest haul, however, was on Saturday when fifty-nine-year-old Joseph Garnett was busted with fifty-seven and a half pounds of cannabis.  The stash was found inside an apartment on Albert Hoy Street in the Belama area.  He too was arrested and charged, arraigned at the magistrate court and offered bail in the sum of eight thousand dollars.