Last night three narco plane tracks were spotted coming out of Venezuela towards Central America and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
One of the planes - a jet - landed in Chetumal - right at the airport. This happened at 4:00 am - and reports say it may have been forced down by the Mexican Air Force. It was left abandoned at the airport and reports say it was loaded with more than a ton of cocaine.
Reports say a crew member was detained as he tried to flee and the drugs are now in custody of that country's Attorney General's office.
But, what about the other two planes? Did they make a clandestine landing in Belize.
The commissioner discussed those three tracks coming out of south America:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We did had last night a number of three tracks that was coming our way and as we normally do we would deploy our officers to respective areas where we'd anticipate that these planes may land and around 2 a.m. this morning one of the planes flew over one of the areas where our officers were posted and something, they must have gotten the winds of something and they just flew over and a couple moments later we were notified that it landed at the Chetumal airport, now it goes to show the effort once again of our officers in Belize even though we are not as equip as we would like to be and not as equipped as our counterparts around us we have been able to, through our efforts prevent a number of these planes from landing and as you would see, you saw what happened it went and landed on a major airport in Chetumal. As a matter of fact it's the Chetumal International Airport, so it just goes to show the desperation of these drug traffickers and the event to which they would go to transport their cargos and so I want to say kudos to our security forces again for a job well done and this is a nightly occurrence. Its not only last night, its every night some time even 4 tracks coming our way, so all of this is adding to the strain that our department is under, because we have a number of areas that we would deploy officers to and it is a whole night occurrence. You have to be there from early up to the time when you would get clearance that these planes have landed at either Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua or Honduras. Because are the 4 main areas."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Sir any information as to the cargo on that plane and whether or not there have been any arrests?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"From what we've gathered from our counterparts is that after the plane landed there were a number of persons who sought to remove the cargo and the crew of the plane, but they were quickly intercepted by the Mexican authority and they are in custody. We also learnt that over 1.5 tonne of cocaine has been confiscated from that plane."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Any idea why they chose of all places the Chetumal International Airport? I know that they could have had their backs against the wall with the Belizean police driving them north, but I mean, the airport? Why?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, I guess they didn't have any other alternative. It could be that the plane was running out of fuel and they had to force land, if not they would have crash land and so I think they took the chance to land, stay alive and be caught, instead of land, crash and die. That could be a possibility."
Reports say another one of the drug planes landed in Honduras.
