Belizean pleads guilty to U.S. drug charges

Once he boarded the U.S. government jet on April twenty-sixth– voluntarily or otherwise–Liston McCord’s fate was sealed. Today, not surprisingly, it was announced that the accused drug runner, along with three Mexican associates, has pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to a number of U.S. narcotics charges. The information comes via a release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James B. Comey, as retransmitted by the Belize Police Department. According to the release, on Monday, McCord, Jorge Manuel Torres, Victor Carrasco and Oscar Moreno pled guilty to charges of Conspiracy to import narcotics and using firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking crimes. The date of sentencing is unknown, but the four defendants face a minimum of ten years in prison with a maximum of life. The release alleges that McCord and the three Mexicans worked for a Mexican based drug cartel headed by kingpins Alcides Ramon Magaña and Jesus Albino Quintero, that brought hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia, via Belize and Mexico. Magaña and Quintero are in custody in Mexico facing extradition to the states. It is not known if McCord and the three Mexicans will testify against their alleged bosses.

The bringing of McCord to the United States remains controversial as evidence strongly suggests that he was in fact kidnapped by Belizean police on orders from the Belize Government and handed over to U.S. agents at the airport. If true, such action would violate Belize’s constitution, which provides for a legal way to extradite Belizeans accused of crimes committed abroad. McCord and the Mexicans had been arrested here on drug charges on October eleventh 2001, but the charges were dropped against McCord on May twenty-second 2002, for lack of evidence. The release gives no information on the fate of George Herbert, who was abducted by police and flown to the U.S.A. at the same time as McCord.