The police senior command also took time to respond to the much talked about the Ross Kemp documentary. According to Commander of Police Operations Assistant Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries while there is some truth as to what was reported some of the issues were exaggerated. Jeffries says while it was one of their own police men who accompanied Ross Kemp on his tour through Belize City, the officer was not with Kemp for the entire taping of the series and it was while he was not present at one of the tapings that is when someone handed the journalist the grenade shown in the documentary. Jeffries says he believes the grenade shown in the documentary is still on the streets.
Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
“I have been a police officer travelling to other countries seen documentaries. I could have shown you many or I could pass out to the media many documentaries that the Commissioner brought back from the United States and that I brought back from El Salvador and it will show you massive amount of information about the type of weapons and heinousness, the mass killings of people on buses and things like that in other countries.
Ross Kemp has done a number of documentaries around the world and to go out and say that they’ve never been presented with a grenade, I find it hard to believe that a country like El Salvador or South Africa or other places that he has gone into, grenades were not available to the people or high powered rifles like our police officer told him was not available. So it is hard to say that these things are not in Belize. But to me it sounds as if it is only in Belize and it is exaggerated.
It is hard to say that the gangs are connected t cartels. However it is natural to deduct that the persons who are connected with cartels are in fact being paid in cash or kind and the in kind is drugs or weapons and the weapon may include high powered rifles. We’ve taken as much as 46 high powered rifles from one island about two years ago in Belize. Those are rifles that came along with drug transhipment. It is obvious that grenades may be crossing our borders with Guatemala, with Honduras, with Mexico.”
As for the police’s ongoing investigation into the September sixth grenade incident a number of persons including law enforcement individuals are now being questioned.
Crispin Jeffries,
“Since this morning we searched the home of a Belize Defense Force soldier in relation to the grenade investigation and he too along with the gentlemen who gave the interview to Ross Kemp will be interviewed further in relation to grenades. So the grenade investigation is continuing. Subsequent to the arrest of Flores we have gotten additional information that will strengthen that case.”
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
“As a nation, as the Ministry of National Security, we have recognized the threat. We have identified the threat like what you rightly pointed out and that saw the introduction of the Belize Coast Guard that is out there, their forward command base is almost completed. We also recognize that we have a specially trained specialized unit in the Belize Defense Force and Police that has trained together to deal with these threats and to respond to these threats. What we need to continue to do now is to refocus our intelligence so that we can obtain concrete information so that when we strike, we strike with precision and pre-empt these things. That is what we need to do.”
Investigations reveal that the grenade was among a shipment sent to the British Army Training Support Unit in Belize last year and is believed to have been taken from one of the training exercises. How it managed to get on the streets of Belize City is still under investigation. One report being investigated is that the grenade was taken by a BDF soldier who had accompanied the British soldiers on the training exercise and he allegedly sold it to someone on the streets. The BDF has stated that is unlikely because their soldiers do not participate in any of the live training exercises conducted.
