Five face the music for foiled heist at Customs

Early on the morning of the tenth September, quick police work averted a major break-in at the Customs Department on Caesar Ridge Road. It is believed it was an inside job and the thieves were looking for weapons. Today five men were charged for the break-in including two employees of the department who were on duty at the time of the burglary were also charged with the crime. Twenty-five year old, Deon Swift Gentle, a Customs Guard, and twenty-four year old Alpheus Nicholson, a Security Officer with the Customs and Excise Department were charged along with twenty-four year old Brian Young, a former employee of the Belize City Magistrate’s Court, eighteen-year-old Kendis Flowers, a fragment- grenade survivor of Mayflower Street victim and twenty-five year old Darios Cruickshank, a resident of Banak Street. All the men were charged with Aggravated Burglary except Security Officer Alpheus Nicholas, who was slapped with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Burglary. Flowers, who recently turned eighteen, was slapped with an additional charge of Keeping a Prohibited Firearm, an AK-forty-seven rifle which was loaded with twenty-three live rounds of seven-point six-two caliber ammunition. Bail was denied and the five were remanded until their next court appearance on October fourteenth. At about three a.m., on September tenth, five men armed with a illegal guns including the deadly AK-forty-seven rifle gained entry to the compound through a window. This was done with the alleged knowledge of the two guards on duty. A Custom’s guard who arrived at work early, saw movements in the building and that is what caused the shootout. Sources indicate that text messages found on the men’s cell phones implicated them in the crime.