Two months ago immigration officer twenty nine year old Maria Guerra and Cayo businessman twenty seven year old Jose Aldana were busted at the airport with over US$10,000 in undeclared cash. It took a while, but today both were formally charged in Belize City Magistrate’s Court. When Guerra and Aldana appeared before Magistrate Ed Usher they were charged with one count each of knowingly attempted to evade customs by importing eleven thousand, five hundred U.S. currency without declaring it.
The money was discovered inside a kit bag by Customs and police personnel during a May thirty first sting operation at the Phillip Goldson International Airport. Jose Aldana is the man who authorities say brought in the U.S. cash after he exited an American Airlines flight and left the bag. Guerra who was on duty was then seen picking up the kit bag and that is when authorities made their move and detained her.
The bust was made possible after a tip off to the Customs Department. Sources say the police may have prematurely acted when they decided to move in on Guerra before first observing exactly where she would have taken the bag of money. Guerra story is that she had found the bag by her desk and was walking over to her supervisor’s office to report it as being lost.
Aldana claims that a third party an unidentified businessman who is not in the country had given him the bag to deliver to someone in Belize. Aldana has been additionally charged with failure to declare a piece of baggage containing eleven thousand, five hundred U.S. dollars. Maria Guerra who is represented by her attorney Michael Peyrefitte and Jose Aldana who is defended by Carlo Mason were each offered and met bail of two thousand five hundred dollars plus one surety of the same amount.
