Another Suspected Drug Plane Lands in Sarteneja
A burning aircraft believed to have been laden with an undetermined quantity of drugs was discovered this morning on an airstrip in Sarteneja Village. According to police, they were notified of the airplane entering into Belizean airspace on Sunday night and scrambled various teams into areas where they suspected that it would have landed. This morning around four a.m., they were notified of an airplane on fire in the northeastern fishing community. At the scene, responding officers were able to recover several items, including buckets and other assorted objects. It is not where the contents of the aircraft was transported but it is believed that the shipment may have been ferried by sea into neighboring Mexico.
ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
ACP Joseph Myvett
“This morning, shortly after five a.m., Corozal police were called to the Sarteneja area, where on the Sarteneja airstrip a burnt aircraft, twin engine, was seen on the airstrip still engulfed in flames. A search conducted on the area revealed several items, empty buckets and other paraphernalia. So far no one has been detained and an investigation is ongoing. What we know is that shortly after two a.m., the police were alerted of an aircraft being tracked en route to Belize. As a result, they set up operations in several parts where it is believed that that aircraft would have landed; however, they were later informed shortly before five a.m. that the aircraft seemingly landed on the Sarteneja airstrip sometime around 4:15 a.m. or thereabouts. So it is an ongoing investigation at this point.”
Reporter
“Sir, any identifying features or was the plane so destroyed that you can’t even…”
ACP Joseph Myvett
“It would have been more or less the same as the last one which was that about three-fourths has been destroyed and it was still engulfed in flames when the police arrived at the scene.”
Reporter
“Sir, is there any truth to the report that the drugs came on the plane and then they were transferred directly into the sea for forward movement into Mexico?”
ACP Joseph Myvett
“Well that is an investigation that, that is a part of the investigation we are following. That information is out there and as a result we are following up on that as well.”
Reporter
“Sir, do you know definitively that a drug cargo arrived with that plane?”
ACP Joseph Myvett
“At this point, no.”
Media reports also indicate that in the outskirts of Chetumal, Mexican law enforcement officers from numerous agencies were deployed early this morning in the area of Calderitas, where a suspected drug plane was reported to have been spotted near Oxtankah. Elsewhere, a huge bust was made in Peten, Guatemala. The Guatemalan army coordinated a bust at an illegal landing strip in the area of Estrella del Norte, San Andres where a group of armed narco-traffickers attempted to prevent the operation. It resulted in a shootout but the army detained six suspects and confiscated eighty parcels of cocaine, a jet, two pickup trucks, a jeep, a tractor, a horse, eight firearms, and a radio.
