Exhibit Keeper Charged with Negligent Harm for Marijuana-laced Candy

There is major development in the case of the weed laced candies that hospitalized several children on Tuesday. National Exhibit Keeper for the Belize Police Department, Mario Bustillos, has been charged with ten counts of negligent harm in relation to the minors who were hospitalised after they ingested candy laced with weed. Just before two p.m. today, police officers attached to the Crimes Investigation Branch escorted the thirty-eight-year-old Orange Walk resident to the magistrate’s court in Belize City where he appeared before Magistrate Dennison Mannon and read the charges. Bustillos was represented by attorney Darrell Bradley, who says that his client claims that the items, which were deposited in the exhibit room, were unlabeled and appeared to be garbage left there for about three weeks.  But the police believed that the negligence of Bustillos’ actions by not following protocol and the improper disposal of the items is what led to the drug-laced candy making its way to the streets and eventually consumed by the minors.  In court today, Bustillos plead not guilty to all ten counts; prosecutor, ASP Dervin Sambula had no objection to bail. On Thursday, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, during an interview with the media, alluded to a breakdown in communication and that the exhibit keeper may have been negligent.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Clearly, all indications are that a person on his own accord did something without following the procedure that is in place. Now, had the exhibit keeper follow the process – i.e. contacted his commander, Miss Elrington, to say to her we have some items here that is really and truly having the exhibit room smelling bad, I would like to seek your permission to have these items discarded. Alifa would have then wrote to me as the commissioner and say the exhibit keeper is saying XYZ in respect to XYZ; we seek your permission if we can have the items disposed of. I would have sent the team from Belmopan to go and inspect the items to make sure that these items are not subject to any active investigation or matter before the court. And if I were to be advised that the matter involving these items were still active, I would have said no. If I were to find out that the matter would have been closed and there was no use for them, then I would have said to dispose of them and would have guided them in terms of how to dispose of it. The thing is Duane, the exhibit keeper is not an amateur. He has been there for a number of years; he knows the process and that is what angers me. He knows. And when you know the process and don’t follow the process and things like this happen, then you have to be held accountable.”

Duane Moody

“So what happens with the exhibit keeper?

Chester Williams

“Well the exhibit keeper is not disciplined by the commissioner because he is a civilian, but I have directed a criminal investigation to look to see at two possibilities. One would be perverting the course of justice because the fact that these gummies were there and there was an active investigation, by him disposing of them, he certainly had perverted the course of justice. But to say pervert the course of justice, it requires that there be some element of intent; that he would have had to intend to pervert the course of justice. From his explanation it doesn’t seem that way. So the next option is to see whether or not he can be charged for causing harm by negligence because now, through his negligent conduct, by not following the process, he caused harm to a number of persons. With negligence, all we need to prove was that his conduct was negligent and that would be sufficient for a conviction. “

Bail was offered to Bustillos in the sum of seven thousand dollars plus two sureties of three thousand five hundred dollars each. He is to report to the Orange Walk Police Station every Monday and is not to come within one hundred feet of any of the victims or prosecution witnesses. He is not to leave the jurisdiction without permission from the court.  ComPol Chester Williams confirmed with the media on Thursday that Akeem Gamboa, who imported the edibles, has been dismissed from the Belize Police Department.