Clifton Hyde charged for human trafficking of Indian nationals

The arraignment of a group of eleven Indian nationals, who entered Belize illegally from Guatemala on Wednesday night, has been deferred to Monday in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court.  The men have been in police custody since being caught by officers attached to the Mobile Interdiction Team near Billy White, in the vicinity of the Spanish Lookout community.  According to immigration officials, they were notified about a plan to unlawfully cross the group into the country several hours prior to their arrival at the western border.  That information was subsequently relayed to MIT, who dispatched personnel into the area to establish a checkpoint.  Nabbed during the sting were nine men and two minors whose only legal entry into Central America was recorded in Nicaragua.  They are thirty-four year old Gobinder Singh, twenty-four year old Jaspreet Singh, twenty-seven year old Sarajit Singh, twenty-two year old Naitik Guvantbhai Patel, thirty year old Prakash Qumar Patel, twenty-two year old Montukumar Chandrakant Patel, twenty-year old Pragnesh Qumar Patel and twenty-three year old Hitesh Narendrabhai Jani.  The names of the two minors are being withheld.  Of note is that the last names Singh and Patel are recurrent but immigration officials, we are told, have not been able to ascertain the relation of the men.  News Five understands that two of them are wanted for fraud in India.  They have been charged with the immigration offense of illegal entry.  Meanwhile, a charge of aiding in the smuggling of an illegal immigrant is expected to be brought against Clifton Hyde, whom it is believed was escorting the group as it traveled north towards Mexico.  Hyde is a driver/mechanic employed by the British High Commission.  The men were transported to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court at two o’clock this afternoon, where they were informed that Senior Magistrate Lindsbert Willis was unavailable to preside over the indictment.  A Justice of the Peace was subsequently brought in to authorize the extension of their remand since the forty-eight hour window during which charges could have been levied had expired.