Bales of Cocaine from Recent Drug Plane Go Up in Flames
And while those nine accused were receiving bail, elsewhere in the country, police were destroying almost a ton of cocaine from that very same drug plane. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The sweltering heat emission from the burning pile could be felt from afar. This man-made pit was set up by the Belize Police Department for the destruction of nine hundred and forty-eight point three kilos or two thousand ninety point six pounds of cocaine. Sixty-seven thousand nine hundred grams were from two bales found in possession of nine men, including three law enforcement officers, last Friday.
ACP Marco Vidal, Commander of Operations, B.P.D.
“Whenever the drugs are found, you have scenes of crime goes on the scene and they gather the evidence. In addition to that, the drugs is photographed and everything and that is taken before the court and then you guys are here to witness that it is the drugs that are being destroyed. We have the magistrate, we have the chemist and then we have a justice of the peace and then we have a senior officer to witness the drug destruction.”
Police found twenty-three bales at the site of a plane crash in northern Belize District. Three were discovered somewhere behind Crooked Tree Village. According to police, they found two bales on board a boat that responding officers intercepted in the wee hours of January twenty-ninth on Hill Bank Lagoon. Operations Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Marco Vidal explains the urgency for the destruction.
Marco Vidal
ACP Marco Vidal
“Where the drugs were found is very close to the border where we have this major problem with drugs. Further to that, the earlier we can get the order for the drugs to be destroyed, it is destroyed. Everything is being followed by a process.”
Reporter
“Is the necessity for swiftness and speed due to a security concern?”
ACP Marco Vidal
“Yes it is. That is it. It is for security reasons.”
The process was efficient. Sacks filled with tightly wrapped parcels of the white stuff are offloaded, individually photographed and counted. Seconds before each package is slit open and thrown into the burning pit, a chemist would randomly select three of the parcels and with a Modified Scott’s Reagent, confirm that its content is cocaine.
ACP Marco Vidal
“Prosecution applied to the court for the order to be given for it to be destroyed. So the drugs were removed from the secured area in Belize City to this area. It is now being sampled, twenty-six bales, plus the two, the twenty-eight bales are taken out and then each parcel is taken out from the bag. And then the chemist is checking that it is drug, that it is cocaine, and it is blue if it is cocaine. Once that is done, then it is thrown in the fire where it is consumed.”
ACP Marco Vidal says that while the department has made tremendous strides in the fight against this transnational crime, more has to be done.
ACP Marco Vidal
“It is a small portion of what is really out there and our investigation, our intelligence will show these persons for what they are and once that is done, they will be arrested and charged for the offenses that they commit.”
Duane Moody
“Your take on the fact that three law enforcement officers were found to be in the area, found in possession of two bales; it flies in the face of their duties.”
ACP Marco Vidal
“Yes it does and that’s why the commissioner has said that it is deplorable, it saddens the department. But we know that this exists; it exists in all security agencies. So our job is to gather the intelligence and get them in the act because anything other than that, they will say it is just speculation.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
