And while Awe's career as the minister's driver took a nosedive, so did a suspected narco jet - right into Belizean waters. ComPol Chester Williams confirmed that they had been tracking the jet on Friday night, and deployed officers to various known landing areas. The team in Riversdale, in the Stann Creek District, reportedly deterred the plane from landing there, causing it to eventually crash in an area off the Placencia Peninsula. But while the police found its tail and wing, the fuselage - presumably full of drugs - is nowhere to be found.
The ComPol gave us an update on this latest narco jet landing lost and not found:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Sometime around one a.m. on Saturday morning, which is Friday night, the plane entered our airspace and our team, comprising of police and members of the Belize Defence Force were in place at the possible landing spots. Apparently, it wanted to land on the airstrip at Riversdale, but we had a team there and so it could not have landed. The plane went out and disappeared off the radar somewhere east of Placencia village. We were of the belief that the plane had gone to Honduras to land. In the morning of Saturday, we received information from fishermen that they saw the remains of a plane floating about fifteen to twenty miles east of Placencia village, which would be in the Moho Caye area. And based on that, we deployed members of the Belize Police Department and the Coast Guard to the area to search. So far we have found the wings of the plane and the tail, but we have not been able to locate the fuselage and that is the most important part because we still are of the view that the drugs may be in the fuselage as well as the pilots. Since then, we have conducted intensive search of the area, including using the helicopter to do a flyover of the general area, and we have still not been able to locate the fuselage. Our search continues; we have put together an investigative team that will be tasked to look at the entire situation to see if we will be able to get the information that will lead us to the fuselage of that plane."
Reporter
"What's the likelihood that the pilot survived?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I cannot say. I don't think an impact like that the pilot would survive, but we will wait and see when we find the fuselage."
And if you're thinking of going "fishing" in that area, the ComPol warns that there are heavy police and coast guard presence surrounding it.
