Only 7 days ago, news broke that the Belizean security forces detained 9 men, including 3 fellow lawmen with 2 bales of cocaine in a boat on the New River Lagoon. The police have charged these alleged Narco 9 for those bails, which is about 150 pounds of cocaine.
From there the cops followed the trail drug plane that crash-landed in the same general area. They found that aircraft with 23 bales of cocaine, at the crash site. Three more bales were fished up out of the lagoon a day later - to a total of 28 bales and just under a ton of cocaine.
But with a street value in he tens of million of dollars - that's not the kind of thing you'd want to leave lying around - and so, one week after it was found, police moved with haste to destroy the cargo. They escorted it this morning to a remote location, where they were destroyed. They invited the Press to witness the event, and our news team was there. Daniel Ortiz has that story:
This morning, a convoy of law enforcement teams escorted all those 28 bales of cocaine to a secure part of the country with the intent to burn and destroy the ENTIRE two thousand plus pound cargo.
ACP Marco Vidal - Commander, Operations, Police
"We have the 26 bales of cocaine that were the found property, and then we have the 2 that were found in the boat. I say 26 because it includes the 23 plus the 3 that were found afterward. And that totaled just under 1 tonne - 947 thereabouts. So is this is from the operations that were done on the 29th of this month, around 3:30 in the morning, where 6 persons were arrested."
"These persons have been arraigned before the court. They have pled not guilty. Today, we applied to the court. The prosecution applied to the court for the order to be given for it to be destroyed. So, the drugs were moved from a secure area in Belize City, to this area."
The thick plastic wrapping encasing each brick of coke was sliced open, and a chemist performed a test - in full view of everyone present - to confirm that the substance was indeed cocaine.
A few drops of Modified Scott's Reagent was dripped on the exposed portion. The testing solution appeared to be somewhat of pink color, and we were told that if it turned blue, that was an undisputed positive result, indicating that the substance was cocaine.
The entire oversight table, including a sitting Senior Magistrate, was responsible to account for every package, and once the cocaine test was administered, it was ready to be tossed on a massive bonfire.
These officials dutifully watched all those drugs go up in smoke. Being in any kind of proximity to the fire meant that the air was filled with a strong odor of chemicals.
ACP Marco Vidal
"So, we have the Magistrate. We have the chemist, who is the one sampling the drugs. We have a Justice of the Peace, and we have a senior officer who witnessed the drugs' destruction."
The Department's Commander of Operations told us that the need for this quick destruction was due to security reasons.
Reporter
"How does that factor into proving the guilt of these individuals since these items would be considered evidence?"
ACP Marco Vidal
"Right so, whenever the drugs are found, you have Scenes of Crime [who] go on the scene, and they gather the evidence. In addition to that, the drugs are photographed and everything. And that is taken before the court. You guys are here to witness that it is the drugs that are being destroyed. The evidence that the Scenes of Crime took is what is taken before the court to convict these people?"
Reporter
"Eventually, a report is made from all these activities."
ACP Marco Vidal
"Right, you have reports from all the different officers, and that is tendered as evidence."
Reporter
"Some would say, you know what, it was just taken into police custody last Friday, and within a week's time, it's being destroyed."
ACP Marco Vidal
"Right, and as you are aware, where the drugs were found, it is very close to the border, where we have this major problem with drugs. Further to that, the earlier we can get the drugs, the order for the drugs to be destroyed, it is destroyed. Everything is being followed by a process."
Reporter
"Is the necessity for swiftness and speed due to a security concern?"
ACP Marco Vidal
"Yes, it is."
Reporter
"Your take on the fact that you know what 3 law enforcement officers were found in possession of these 2 bales. It flies in the face of their duties."
ACP Marco Vidal
"Yes it does and that's why the commissioner has said that it is deplorable, it saddens the department. But we know that this exists. It exist in all security agencies, so our job is to gather the intelligence and get them when in the act, because anything other than that they will say it is just speculation."
Reporter
'What are your reactions when you see police officers being, I think this may be the third time that a lawman is being called up as supposedly being some facilitator in this trans-national operation?"
ACP Marco Vidal
"I think that speaks volume about the work that the police is actually doing, because we have genuine police officers and we have those that are engaging in these kind of activities. So for the police to go after these persons is applauding because we need to go after these persons. There are others, they just need to be exposed and then captured."
The drug destruction finished at 1:00 pm.
Of important note, the police asked our colleague journalist and talk show host, Louis Wade from Plus TV, to act as a sort of official witness to the destruction. He had to stay for the entire afternoon to witness all those bricks of cocaine completely burn.
