For many in the hustle sector of the economy, Christmas is contraband time, and the hustle often starts in the Corozal Free Zone where premium liquor and Mexican beer is cheap. And for those who can get past the customs checkpoints, it can mean making a killing on contraband.
But, getting past those checkpoints has been tough lately, and we are told, even a few customs officers have been caught. And so that's why one group of smugglers found a novel way to get their contraband out of the zone: They hid it in a garbage truck! You heard right, a garbage truck.
This morning at 5:00 am, the truck entered the zone and went about its garbage collection business, but when it left at 6:30 am, Customs, acting on excellent intelligence followed it. The truck went about a mile and a half to the nearest dumpsite, which wasn't unusual. But when they got there, they started to unload a major contraband haul!
And get this, when the three men in the operation saw the customs mobile, they turned on the trash compactor and tried to crush the contraband the way they do with garbage! Luckily, customs moved fast enough to save most of the stuff.
These pictures provided to us by our northern correspondent show 50 cases of Mexican beer, three cases of cigarettes, 24 cases of Dutch cheese, two cases of wine, and three cases of assorted liquor. It's quite a bust for customs, and while they wouldn't comment, we do know that three men are detained. But, usually these matters are settled out of court with a fine for three times the value. In this case, sources tell us that three times the value could be as much as eighty thousand dollars!
We'll keep following the story.
