All 6 Persons Detained for Independence Day Drug Plane Landing are Released

All six persons detained from Orange Walk in connection with recent suspect drug plane landing on a farm off the Old Northern Highway have been released. Just before news time, the last person, Noel Codd, who is the owner of the farm on which the plane made a clandestine landing, was released from police custody, having been detained since Monday morning. Codd and four of his farmhands as well as Isaac Petka, a Mennonite man from Shipyard Village, were detained on Monday. Two days later, the four employees were released, including a seventeen-year-old minor.  That same day, Codd was arraigned in the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court for possession of a prohibited ammunition and given bail, but was immediately taken back into custody pending charges relating to the facilitation of a plane landing in an unregistered aerodrome. Petka also remained in detention at the station until Thursday afternoon when he was released without charges; there are allegations that he was being pushed by investigators to give a statement implicating Codd in the illegal activity. ComPol Chester Williams has gone on record to say that the department has evidence to suggest that Codd knew of the illegal activity and was part of the crime, but that the department was waiting on directives from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Well that has not happened and another forty-eight hours had expired so the department had to release Codd. News Five has confirmed with Codd’s attorney that his cell phone remains in police custody.