Charges soon to be withdrawn against P.C. Mangar

crispin jeffries

It was big news on April first when the police top brass, flanked by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, called a news conference and dropped a bombshell saying that rogue cops were the mastermind behind a series of armed robberies that had taken place across the country. The story took several twists, and Police Constable Jermaine Mangar was charged with Robbery and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery, rather light offenses compared to the serious allegations made.  There were other senior officers involved, we were told, and they would be charged but in the end that didn’t happen.  So after the April fool’s day press conference leading into the Easter holiday, people were waiting to see who else would be fingered in the alleged ring that was responsible for the string of robberies and even murder. But today, Attorney for Mangar, Richard “Dickie” Bradley had his own bombshell when he told News Five that his client is about to be exonerated.  We start off with a recap of the sensational Press Conference.

Crispin Jeffries, Commissioner of Police (April 1^st, 2010)

“It was learnt that a police officer was the mastermind coordinating some of these incidents.  We have taken that police officer into custody and he, after thorough investigation over the next few hours will be arrested and charged.  But in that process, we believe that we have stumbled upon—if you can call it that—a ring being led by a very unscrupulous criminal minded police officer.  That police officer, from the information we’ve gathered so far, may have a hand in the incident Spanish Lookout, may have a hand in the incident at Social Security, may have a hand in several other incidents in Belize City. While these are strong comments, we are confident that the senior people within our department, we believe that they can put together the necessary evidence to successfully prosecute on some of these charges. That officer, like four others who we believe are closely connected to him, will be suspended from duty today and we will carry on with this investigation.  We believe that this may lead us to more officers, as other names are being called but not sufficient for us to go on with at this time.”

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister (April 1^st, 2010)

dean barrow

Those that were involved in the operation last night and who took into custody the suspects that are presently in lockdown confirmed to all of us that at least one of those suspects has offered information, has made a statement and has provided details that make it absolutely clear that there is a ring that was operating and that all the incidents that the Commissioner listed are in fact connected, that this ring is responsible for every single one of those incidents and that the ring was being masterminded by a serving police officer. The fact is that same Belize Police Department has been able to break the ring, has been able to arrest one of their own and is in possession of evidence that makes it crystal clear that what was happening was organized, that what was happening was the work of this criminal gang, that this criminal gang was being led by this police officer.”