Coast Guard Commandant: “Wet Drops” Have Been Eliminated, Almost

Earlier we heard Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams speak of the burnt remains of a suspected drug plane in the remote area of Sunday Wood in Toledo. While the police were not able to reach the location in time to seize any drugs or apprehend anyone, the Belize Coast Guard has been able to keep wet drops at a minimum, according to Rear Admiral Elton Bennett who heads that unit. In fact, he told us today that they have been able to virtually eliminate wet drops at sea.

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“I think we’ve done a really good job to almost eliminate “wet drops” from our sea spaces. We’ve been actively operating out at sea to deter drug trafficking directly at sea. What we’ve seen as of recent is air trafficking coming into Belize and in some cases, moving from air to land and in some cases, moving by sea. That’s a new challenge for us, in terms of locations of where these drug trafficking is entering the country. Sometimes it’s very remote locations and sometimes in areas where the Belize Coast Guard is not directly present to be able to respond within a reasonable time, so new phenomenon, but we’ve been dealing with this for a couple years now and I think we’ve been able to reconfigure our forces to a certain and minimize the maritime trafficking when it comes to drug trafficking through Belize and national air and land and sea spaces.”

Marion Ali

“So there haven’t been any hot pursuits on sea because there was a wet drop or there was a boat that was suspicious”

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

“We’ve had a couple hot pursuits in recent, where we’re within vicinity and closing in, of drug traffickers. We have not had any direct success in terms of intercept from vessel to vessel.”

Marion Ali

“How’s so?”

Rear Admiral Elton Bennett

“We’ve had occasions where we cannot ascertain, because of the cover of darkness, if that is the confirmed drug vessel.”