COST Unit Disbanded; Anyone Can Be a Suspect

Minister Musa revealed today that the Belize Police Department has received court permission to access four cell phones recovered from the scene of the drug plane landing November fourth. The expectation is there may be valuable information to determine the extent of the involvement of officers and civilians in the illegal activity. As it is, the Commander of Operations Strike Team, better known as COST, has been disbanded because some of its members were among those arrested and charged for the crime. The unit’s leader, ACP Marco Vidal, has been relegated to a desk job.  According to Minister Musa, at this time, anyone could be a suspect.

Kareem Musa

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“That unit has been gutted and rightly so. So it does not exist anymore. Even though there were other members of this unit who were not found at the scene, we made a decision at the ministry level that this unit needed to be dismantled immediately. So the COST unit does not exist anymore and Mister Vidal, as I understand it, he is on personal leave at this moment; he is no longer at that unit anymore and he is now at a desk job. Everybody, everybody – police and civilians – can be a suspect in this case. This is an open investigation and so if it is that the evidence…as you know, there were four cell phones found at the scene. We have already gotten the court order to access the contents of those cell phones and if it is on that cell phone, there is a message to you Duane we will naturally bring you in for questioning. It doesn’t mean that you are guilty, but we have to look at everybody as a suspect. So it doesn’t matter if it is the commissioner all the way down to a constable or an ACP or a DCP whatever the case may be, everybody has to be a suspect. And so this case is by no means an open and shut case. We have to look at all angles. We have the DEA also involved in the investigation, not directly of course.”