Elmer Nah Testifies in His Case Regarding a Drug Plane Landing in Southern Belize

Three Belmopan residents, including interdicted Police Corporal, thirty-nine-year-old Elmer Nah, appeared in court today and presented their defense as to why they were in possession of several rounds of ammunition. The case is in relation to the landing of a drug plane in southern Belize a few years ago. Nah, his common-law wife, Epiphania Caliz and his brother-in-law, interdicted Police Constable, Manuel Caliz, accused and charged with two counts of kept unlicensed ammunitions for over a hundred live rounds of ammunitions, presented their defense. To give his version of the events, Nah was unrepresented and gave sworn evidence from the witness stand, followed by his brother-in-law. Manuel Caliz chose to remain silent and Nah’s wife gave an unsworn dock statement in her defense. At the end of the proceedings, the case was further adjourned for April twenty-fourth, when Senior Magistrate, Baja Shoman will continue hearing the defense as they are prepared to summon three police officers as witnesses before closing their case.  Nah admitted to being in possession of one hundred and thirty-nine live rounds of ammunitions and said that at the time he had no license for them. However, defense attorney for Manuel Caliz, Leroy Banner hinted that as a member of the COST Team, police officers need to be in possession of a license given they are working. Nah said he showed a Corporal Chun the vest, and that’s when the corporal said Nah took out the vest from inside a vehicle and transferred it into his police pickup vehicle. Nah said he told Chun that the items he found belonged to another corporal.  The defense is yet to call three police witnesses for the next court date on April twenty-fourth. Nah was further remanded to the Belize Central Prison while his wife and brother-in-law remain on bail. We spoke with one of the defense attorneys in the case, Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley following the session.

Dickie Bradley

Dickie Bradley, Attorney for Epiphania Caliz

“The trial continued today in regards to the charges that the three persons were in possession of a hundred and eighty odd rounds of ammunition and a bullet-proof vest. In the case of my client, who is a public officer and has been on half pay from November of 2021 to the present, is that in fact she was with her very small child and her common-law (husband), and the bullet-proof vest was found in the back of the vehicle. In any case that involves a person having guns, ammunition, customs goods which are not paid for in terms of their taxes, you would at least have to establish in a court that the person had control of the item and also had knowledge of the item. Now, interestingly and importantly, former Corporal of Police, – he’s still Corporal of Police – yes, Mr. Elmer Nah took the witness stand and he, well, I guess he has the experience, so he was a very credible witness, clear and straightforward in his explanation, not only what actually transpired, but important issues surrounding that matter. So you would have heard the prosecutor, our colleague, Alifa Elrington say in one of her questions: “So you didn’t have a license for the ammunition”, and he didn’t hesitate to say no because he is in fact on a police operation and he belonged to a very special team and other police officers in other for a have said that that is the procedure they are given an amount or quantity, especially if you’re a team leader. You are responsible for then redistributing. You get ten, you get twenty, you get fifty, depending on the number of persons in the team. So these are ammunition that are used by the police I these major operations.”