No charges filed in uncustomed cars case

Three weeks after the Police Department confiscated a fleet of late model vehicles from a farm in south Stann Creek, customs officials have yet to file any charges. Law enforcement sources tell News 5 that the investigation files on the ten trucks will be passed on to the department’s legal advisor, Gian Ghandi, who will decide whether any proposed charges can be substantiated by the evidence compiled by customs. The ten files, one for each vehicle, will then be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions who could then initiate criminal charges, including evasion of custom duties and possession of uncustomed goods. Viewers will recall that on November twenty-first, the ten vehicles, including Toyota Hiluxes, Prados, 4-Runners, a Nissan Patrol and Dodge Caravans, were found in a warehouse belonging to businessman John Zabaneh. At the time, Zabaneh told News 5 that customs had given him permission to move the vehicles from the Big Creek Port after they were damaged in Hurricane Iris. However, News 5 now understands that according to customs records at Big Creek, those vehicles don’t exist, as their presence was never documented by authorities. To date, Zabaneh has not presented officials with any documents to prove the vehicles legally entered the country and they remain impounded at the Police Training School in Belmopan. As for the issue of ownership and whether the vehicles were legally obtained in Guatemala, the Police Department is currently handling that part of the investigation. We were not able to reach Zabaneh for comment.