With the price of Belizean beef soaring in the Guatemalan market - cattle rustling in Western Belize has become a chronic problem. Well, now the Belmopan Police and the Belize Livestock Association have agreed to work together to directly reward cops who run down rustlers. And it's not just small change, either. Any cop whose arrest leads to a conviction of a cattle rustler will get five thousand dollars. We found out more today:..
Supt. Howell Gillett, OC, Belmopan Police
"Recently, not only in the Cayo District, the price of beef has gone up tremendously, I think double or more. Along with the rise came the increase in cattle theft, or what we know as cattle rustling. So we knew that because of the increase, there will be a rise in criminal activities so we partnered with the Belize Live Stock Producers Association and they almost readily agreed to the proposals that we took to them and one of them is that last Wednesday, we signed a memorandum of understanding between the Belmopan police and the BLPA. Before we signed that agreement, we realized that police officers in other parts of the country will be feeling left out from this signing. So we mutually agreed that we will include all the police officers across the country who successfully convict any person or persons for being involved in the illegal rustling of cattle, countrywide. Yes it's their job to investigate and bring people before the court but I think police officers will be more than happy now because they'll be getting five thousand dollars for doing their job."
The reward is valid for police officers all across the country - and it is five thousand for any conviction. The memorandum of understanding remains in effect until July 31st, 2016.
