There was a brazen heist at the Scotia Bank Branch in Spanish Lookout, Cayo. The same branch, which was hit seven years ago, is located immediately next to the police station and is equipped with surveillance cameras as well as its own security guards. Employees and customers were busy with transactions at around nine-thirty this […]
Early this morning, travel by commuters on the Haulover Bridge at the northern entrance of the City, was interrupted by a predawn bonfire that filled the air with thick black smoke. Several tires were placed across the bridge and set on fire at about five-thirty. The blaze was eventually put out by the Fire Department, […]
Police have made a significant arrest in the murder of Daniel Anderson who was killed over the weekend. Late this afternoon, Steve Martin Moss, a twenty-three-year-old stevedore of Queen Charlotte Street, appeared before Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser. Moss was charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of Use […]
A seventeen-year-old has been charged for the murder of eighteen-year-old Christian Contreras in San Pedro. As we reported on Tuesday night, two persons were in police custody, including a minor. Today, the teenager was formally arrested and charged for the shooting that happened just before midday that left Contreras dead and twenty-eight-year-old Ryan Lucas hospitalized. […]
Since the thirteenth of September, the press office of the Belize Police Department has failed to facilitate, according to media records, a single interview on any subject, including high profile criminal cases. The press is questioning whether Police, who have been reeling from multiple controversies including internal infighting, allegations of corruption and a spike in […]
The Gang Suppression Unit is apparently headed for a much narrower mandate within the Belize Police Department. This is after their run-in with Cameron Usher Senior and Kelvin Usher, which caused the teenager to flee into the bushes near Lucky Strike for four days, terrified by gunfire from a team approaching to destroy a marijuana […]
The Police Department is also tackling continuous egg on its face from officers breaking the law with impunity. Whether it is extorting members of the community, or stealing the proceeds of crime like cocaine, or overreacting to citizen protest, it has not been a good few weeks for the men and women in khaki and […]
After four sessions, the Senate Special Select Committee finished its questioning of Director of Immigration Diana Locke this afternoon at the National Assembly. Among the first things discussed was the phenomenon revealed last week of taxi drivers holding the numbers for service at the Immigration Department and seeking favour with visitors. Locke discussed a recent […]
The Committee has been questioning Locke on how the department intends to implement certain recommendations of the Auditor General. While some are easier implemented than others, there are some recommendations that will require assistance further afield. One example is the use of bogus stamps under the seal of the Immigration Department. Most of these have […]
Another important recommendation is the installation of background checks for persons applying for nationality. The Immigration Department, according to Director Diana Locke, is now at least partially linked to the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol and is no longer accepting checks of criminal records solely from the Criminal Investigation Branch. But the director was […]
Emmy award winning journalist Kendis Gibson is back in Belize. The Belizean-American ABC News Anchor is here courtesy of the US Embassy. He will visiting with different students to speak to them about pursuing their goals and the importance of education. In his schedule he will be hosting a brief session with local journalists, as […]
On Thursday morning at ten, weeks of frustration surrounding the ever-increasing cost of gas will blow up in what is intended to be a peaceful protest march from Constitution to Battlefield Park. The Belize Leaders for Social Justice, an umbrella group of activist organizations, is hoping for a successful turnout to send a message to […]
In the court of Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser, twenty-three-year-old Adelma Maximo, a student at Gwen Lizarraga Evening School, was charged with wounding. Maximo wanted to plead guilty with an explanation, but the Chief Magistrate entered an equivocal plea of not guilty when she told the court that it was her accuser, Yasmin Morgan, who hit […]
The simmering feud between Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, former head of Eastern Division South, and successor Senior Superintendent Marco Vidal reached boiling point earlier in September. Responding to a press question on September twelfth, Vidal alluded to the widely held perception that certain gang groups were allowed to thrive in the marijuana trade […]
Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie says he is not quite fifty years old and has held his current job for nearly five years. He politely disagreed with our position that his tenure has not been the best in terms of addressing crime, but the question remains: is his time as top cop winding down? Whylie […]
Back in 2012, a national shark working group was established to devise a national plan of action for the conservation and management of sharks. That plan now provides for a framework for the management of domestic small-scale shark fishery. In order to build on what we know of the shark populations and their management, the […]
Earlier this year, the Forestry Department announced the amendments for forest offences; those changes saw a significant increase in fines for forest related crimes. In light of the approaching logging season, the Forest Department reminds the public that they are enforcing the new amendments for forest offences on persons found logging illegally. As stated in […]
All eyes are on Tropical Depression Sixteen which has maximum sustained winds of thirty-five miles per hour and recently formed off the coast of Nicaragua where it is moving at seven miles per hour in a northwest direction. It is forecasted to continue on that path and become a tropical storm by Friday and will […]
It has been weeks since hurricanes Maria and Irma devastated parts of the Caribbean whose economies depend heavily on the tourism dollar. Today, the Belize Tourism Board, in collaboration with the Belize Tourism Industry Association and the Belize Hotel Association, launched a relief campaign to support our Caribbean brothers and sisters affected by the impact […]
