Customs officer detained in case of missing medicine

In an update to a story in our newscast last night about a shipment of medicine that was jacked at Mile forty-two, police have detained customs officer, Julio Martinez, who Customs officials claim failed to abide by the new standard operating procedures applied when medicines are imported into Belize. This new procedure, according to the Comptroller of Customs Gregory Gibson, requires the inspecting customs officer to inform the Investigations section of the department so that a joint inspection of the cargo is carried out. In this latest case, the unit was never contacted, and it is believed that Martinez undertook the inspection single-handedly. Martinez has been removed from assignment until the investigations are completed. Meanwhile, the delivery truck that was transporting the medicines destined for Guatemala, was found around noon today in the Camp Oakley area near Burrell Boom Village. The truck, however, had been emptied of its contents of one hundred and forty-six packages of goods labeled as “cough suppressants”, which arrived from Panama earlier this week. The goods left the Taca warehouse on Central American Boulevard around noon on Wednesday. Hours later, the driver of the truck, twenty-six year old Jermaine Galvez, told police that he was taking the medicines to the Western Border, accompanied by Customs guard, Ian Tillett when he was jacked of his truck and cargo. Customs officials told News Five this afternoon that cough suppressants which contained the drug Ephedrine are imported into Belize only after the Chief Pharmacist approves the importation license. Medicines containing this drug have been banned in neighbouring Guatemala and Mexico. It is also known that since June nineteenth, Belize has completely stopped the legal importation of any medicine that contains Pseudoephedrine, which is a far more potent component. Pseudoephedrine and Ephedrine can be extracted from the cough suppressants and converted into the illegal drug called Methamphetamine or crystal meth. This is a drug that is known to be in high demand primarily in the U.S.

And in related news, the Customs Department has also seized three packages which arrived in Belize from Bogota, Colombia two weeks ago and which are considered suspect cargo. Those packages were consigned to a Belizean importer, who so far has not showed up for the goods.