ComPol Believes that Property Owner Knew About Runway and Drug Plane Landing
There were a lot of noises when a drug plane was found at a farm on Independence Day. An investigation into the suspected drug plane in northern Belize is ongoing, though a property owner on whose farm the aircraft landed has been charged and arraigned but not in relation to the drug plane. Noel Codd was one of six persons detained, he was formally charged before the Magistrate’s Court in Orange Walk on Wednesday for possession of prohibited ammunition. Today, police revealed that he had knowledge of the construction of a makeshift runway on his two hundred acre property, as well as the arrival of the aircraft on September twenty-first but no charges have been placed on him for the drug plane. And according to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, the department is awaiting instructions from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on how to proceed with the case.
On the Phone: Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“That matter in respect to the suspected drug plane landing in Orange Walk District is still under investigation. The police is working under the guidance of the Director of Public Prosecutions whereby whatever statements and other evidence that have been obtained are being forwarded to the D.P.P. and the D.P.P. then provides advice to the police. Certain instructions have been given to the police by the D.P.P. for compliance and the police are in the process of adhering to those instructions after which the D.P.P. is going to make a final determination in terms of how we proceed with the matter.”
Isani Cayetano
“Can you explain, if you are at liberty to do so, how Mr. Codd became a suspect in this entire ordeal, in respect of his property and the aircraft landing on his farm?”
On the Phone: Chester Williams
“Well, I listened to my good friend [Richard] “Dickie” [Bradley’s] interview last night and I must say he’s a very clever fellow and in his interview he said certain things which I will categorically refute. You would know that to prepare an airstrip for a plane to land, especially a jet, is not an overnight thing, it requires some work and it is obvious that that airstrip or the makeshift airstrip on which the plane landed was being worked on for a number of days and that farm, may I say, is a full-time farm we believe that Mr. Codd operated which means that he had workers on that farm every day. I also heard Mr. Bradley say that these persons were tied up and this, that and that by the persons we suspect are the cartels. That is not really so at all, so I don’t know where that information came from that Mr. Bradley alluded to yesterday. Our investigation is not saying that and as I said before, we believe that Mr. Codd must have known of the construction of that airstrip when it was being constructed and he also had knowledge of the plane when it landed because we have information, we also have statements, as a matter of fact, to that effect. So that is how he came about to become a suspect, but at the end of the day, like I said, we are not going to be the ones that are going to judge the evidence. If the D.P.P. directs that we charge and we do so, then it’s a matter for the court to decide whether or not the court will believe that Mr. Codd knew nothing about the construction of that airstrip and that he knew nothing about the plane landing on an airstrip on his farm. So that is where I am going to leave that for now.”
