Drug Destruction, 41 Bales of Cocaine Go Up In Smoke
As much as sixty million dollars worth of cocaine went up in billowing smoke today. The drugs contained in more than forty parcels were ceased by the police in one of the biggest drug busts so far. It happened in the wee hours of September ninth off the Coastal Road where police were waiting for the illegal landing of a Venezuelan jet transporting the drug. This morning, a convoy of police vehicles made its way on the George Price Highway as it carried the large amount of white powder for destruction by fire. The process was lengthy and thorough involving many agencies. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A cavalcade of vehicles led by the blaring sirens of a police mobile proceeded along the George Price Highway this morning, en route to a location where sixty million dollars in powder cocaine was set to be destroyed by fire. The sizeable haul was confiscated by local authorities last Monday, following a brief firefight with a group of six drug runners who entered the country a few days earlier for the express purpose of facilitating the safe landing of a business jet laden with forty-one bales of the narcotic drug.
Specialized teams within the Belize Police Department and the Belize Defense Force bookended the procession, traveling at the ready in the event of a hostile encounter. While there wasn’t any, the sole excitement along the route came when a civilian vehicle edged too closely to the convoy. The masked officers immediately sprung into action, wasting no time in pulling over the occupants of the Dodge Ram pickup.
As it turned out, the driver of the vehicle was Belmopan businessman Miguel ‘Mike’ Menjivar, along with a passenger. Posing no threat, the duo was set free only after a thorough search had been conducted.
Once at the location, several agencies, including Scenes of Crime technicians, as well as other witnesses, commenced the painstaking process of recording each pack, exposing its content and tossing it into an inferno fed by dried, scrap lumber. Assistant Commissioner of Police Marco Vidal led the destruction operation.
ACP Marco Vidal, Commander of Operations
“It is customary that when we have large quantities of drugs that we apply to the court in order to destroy the drugs and this is, we use the provision under the Misuse of Drugs Act in order to apply so that we can get an order from the court and then destroy the drugs and that is the case today. The drugs, as you know, is from the operation that was done on the ninth of September, in the wee hours of the ninth of September.”
In the early hours of that Monday morning, an aircraft en route to Belize from Venezuela touched down on a makeshift airstrip in a distant area off the Coastal Road. Before the King Air 200 could have been discharged of its cargo, a shootout ensued between responding officers and the six men tasked with carrying out the clandestine operation. Several of them were wounded during the gunfight. The seizure which was being incinerated today proved to be significant.
Marco Vidal
ACP Marco Vidal
“Just over one thousand, three hundred kilos of cocaine that is being destroyed.”
Isani Cayetano
“In terms of the process that we’re observing here, the checks and balances in place to make sure that the destruction meets the legal prescription…”
ACP Marco Vidal
“So today what we have here is that we, in order to have transparency, we have the magistrate, we have a Justice of the Peace, we have the investigator and the forensic to ensure that what is being destroyed is actually the drugs that were recovered.”
Isani Cayetano
“To the best of your knowledge, can you walk us through the phases of this particular process?”
ACP Marco Vidal
“So once the order has been given then we escort the drugs from where it is kept to this location where it is being destroyed. All the entities present which is the judiciary, the Justice of the Peace, the police and the forensics is to ensure that there is transparency, so the drug is being tested prior to it being destroyed. It is burst open so that when it is thrown into the fire it can be consumed rapidly.”
Despite the steps in place to expedite the process, burning forty-one bales of cocaine, brick by brick, is an arduous process. One witness described it as playing bingo, each parcel is called out by an alphanumeric label and then fed to the raging fire.
In revisiting the impromptu stop and search moments earlier, ACP Vidal explained the protocols for the caravan.
ACP Marco Vidal
“We ensure that we have security, more so for the quantity and the persons involved. So we do a sweep and in this case the vehicle may have been too close to the convoy and that’s one of the reasons why it had to be stopped to check that it is not any threat to the security and to the personnel and to the drugs that are being escorted to this area.”
Reporter
“Do you have an approximate value of the drugs that are being destroyed here today?”
ACP Marco Vidal
“Sure, it is valued at just over sixty million Belize dollars.”
Reporter
“Sir, once checked, that vehicle was cleared, right?”
ACP Marco Vidal
“Right, it was and it was allowed to leave.”
As it stands, six men are presently on remand at the Belize Central Prison in connection with the drug plane landing, while two more remain at the K.H.M.H. under police guard pending charges. Two of the incarcerated six were nabbed at a resort just outside of Belmopan last Thursday when it was reported to police that the Honduran men were seen acting suspiciously on the premises. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
