Man loses $9,000 in elaborate scam

Police are looking for several suspects after a San Pedro businessman was swindled out of nine thousand dollars. The report, a tangled tale of extortion, came from sixty year old Rick Davidson, owner of the Pinguino Winery. According to Davidson, on December fifteenth he was informed by someone at the Belize Port Authority that a shipment of wine he ordered had arrived. Eight days later, he spoke to someone named Abner Gomez who told him that he had good connections at both Port and Customs and can get his products out for him. Davidson alleges that Gomez said he needed fifty-eight hundred dollars to do it and so he deposited the money in an account in the name of Beverly Wallace. Several days passed and there was no delivery, Davidson called Gomez whose response was that the matter was now in the hands of someone named Edwardo Correa. The businessman went to meet Correa in Corozal Town and was introduced to yet another man, George Escalante. Escalante told him that he needed another three thousand two hundred dollars to take the wine from the Port to the Corozal Free Zone and once again, Davidson handed over the cash. He gave a cheque for one thousand dollars to Correa and twenty-two hundred to Escalante… but still did not receive his wines or had his money refunded. The backdoor deal gone south, Davidson decided to call in the cops who are now looking for the suspects.