Another Drug Plane Lands in Barranco; 1 Officer Detained

The most recent suspected drug plane landing was in southern Belize. Previous landings were occurring frequently up north where the narco-traffickers were generally outsmarting police in their modus operandi. The plane that landed overnight is a Centurion single engine, similar to one that was found in Tres Leguas community in Orange Walk with one thousand two hundred and twenty-six pounds of cocaine. In that case, a senior police officer was arrested. But in Thursday night’s illegal landing, the cargo had already been carted away when police got to the scene around eleven o’clock. A police constable, however, was found in the area with aviation fuel and the seats of the aircraft in his vehicle. Another man, believed to be a Guatemalan national, was with him.  News Five’s Duane Moody has more on the landing.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Another police officer is in trouble with the law tonight for his alleged involvement in a suspected drug plane landing in southern Belize. Police Constable Peter Graham was detained after he was caught fleeing the scene of an illegal plane landing three miles outside Barranco Village, Toledo.

Peter Graham

Sometime between nine and ten o’clock on Thursday night, the plane landed on a farm belonging to a Mennonite businessman located about a mile off the Barranco Road. When personnel from the Anti-Narcotics Unit and the Belize Special Assignment Group responded to reports of the landing, they found the aircraft empty and drums of aviation fuel nearby. No drugs, however, have been found; and although the responding officers have since scoured the area, the cargo it appears had been offloaded and carted away. The officers also came across an SUV with PC Graham and another man inside purported to be a Guatemalan national. A drum of aviation fuel and airplane seats were discovered in their possession.

Edward Vincent Martinez

While the origin of the plane has not been established at this time, we note that Edward Vincent Martinez posted on his Facebook page on December twelfth that he was reliably informed—more so that the government—that sometime between December tenth and seventeenth, a plane carrying illegal narcotics would be leaving Venezuela en route to Belize. Coincidence or not, with the landing of this suspected drug plane three miles from Barranco Village in the Toledo District, it questions is police are looking at the possible correlation. Of note also is that Martinez had also posted pictures of a book with coordinates and details of plane landings in Belize just prior to the major bust in Tres Leguas, for which Superintendent David Chi, PC Norman Anthony and three others were charged back in September.

The Belize Police Department along with other partner agencies are conducting a vigorous investigation into this matter. Reporting for News Five, I am Duane Moody.