Tonight, a 31-year-old postal worker is spending his second night in detention at the CIB office in Belize City, pending charges of mail tampering and theft. Postmaster Evrard Lopez today told us that an anonymous tipster, a female, called him yesterday to say that she had seen postman Brian Luna open a mail on the street.
Lopez called the Crimes Investigation Branch who sent over a team of investigators to the Post Office where Luna was on duty. At 4:00 in the afternoon, they searched him and found four pieces of mail inside his shoe. According to Lopez, they had been flattened down on the sole inside the shoe. One more piece of mail was found inside his shirt pocket. From what we understand, all those mails were personal and all had been opened. Additionally, police found BZ$102 and US$4 in Luna's pants pocket.
In the one year since taking over, Lopez says that he has stressed to his workers that mail theft is, "stealing poor people's money." He said he is aware that there is a small clique of workers he suspects, and he is determined to end it. He said he sees this arrest as a major accomplishment towards that goal.
