There was a dangerous armed standoff this morning in Benque Viejo between police and BDF soldiers as the police battled for custody of a contraband cargo. The stage was set last night at 7:00 PM when a BDF patrol covering the Mopan River behind the Xunantunich site came up with a stash of contraband vehicle parts. The smugglers got away, but the BDF recovered the cargo, which was valued at between three to four thousand dollars.
It was left overnight at the BDF observation post, and this morning, a team of three soldiers led by Lieutenant Eric Neal went to pick them up for delivery to the Customs Department. That is prescribed in law -- that any contraband goods must be taken to the nearest customs house in a timely manner.
But they never got there. In fact, our reports are that tonight those goods still have not been handed over to police. And that's because reports say the soldiers were intercepted by police on their way to Customs at the Western Border. The BDF team went to the Benque Police Station to discuss the matter, which is when they were reportedly threatened with the charge of "interfering in a police investigation."
In the end, the three BDF soldiers were outnumbered and police simply took possession of the contraband cargo. But it didn't go down as easily as that. Police wanted the goods – they say for their investigation -- and multiple reports say there was a tense standoff between the two. According to reports, it resulted in Police pulling guns on the BDF, followed by one senior police officer shoving a BDF soldier in his chest and culminating in a reinforcement of BDF soldiers surrounding the police station.
That's how crazy it got and to defuse it, the Customs Department was also called in. As we understand, Customs upheld the BDF's position that it alone should take possession of contraband goods, but the police did not relent.
And while that is our composite report culled from at least four sources who were involved or informed of the standoff, Officer Commanding Benque Viejo, Inspector Mai, says nothing like that happened. He says there was no confrontation or misunderstanding, that the police need the items as evidence in an ongoing investigation. He says when the police are finished it will be taken to Customs. Our understanding of it from the Customs angle, however, is that it must be taken to Customs, which was supposed to have happened by end of business today.
