From last week we have been reporting intensively on the major drug bust on the Southern Highway which netted 1,682 pounds of cocaine, a drug plane, 5 guns, and, of course, the Bladen 11 - which includes four cops.
But, a lot of the reportage has focussed on the sensation of the involvement of the lawmen from the Commander's Strike Team, and all the criminal and administrative intrigues and fallout that revelation engenders.
Tonight, we'll pull back a little to look at what happened that night out on the Southern Highway - where - reports suggest - the confluence of a few happy coincidences allowed police to make this huge bust and 11 arrests to go with it. Courtney Menzies reports:
We know that this Piper Cheyenne 1 landed on the Southern Highway near Bladen at about 9:30pm. From there, a Mexican air asset - reported to be an AWAC surveillance aircraft - hovered right over the scene and reported the movements of the narcos to Belize's Anti Narcotics Unit.
They saw the narcos and their security team - allegedly made up of police officers from the Commander Operations' Strike Team loading up and moving the cargo in this Toyota Hilux. But it was slow going because reports say two other support vehicles being brought in allegedly by other suspects were intercepted on the road by police doing routine checks. This slow unloading of the 1600 pounds gave police from Independence time to respond - over an hour later.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"A team of four officers from Intermediate Southern Formation were deployed to the location. Upon arrival there, they saw the plane on the ground, vehicles and persons around, which would indicate that cargo was being unloaded from the plane. The four police officers attempted to engage the traffickers and the number of persons who were involved in this unloading was around 15-20 persons and we only had four police officers. Nonetheless these officers were brave enough and attempted to engage these traffickers and they subsequently came under heavy fire."
Heavy fire - but the cops only had short arms and the Narcos had these 5 assault rifles - the police were no match and had to retreat.
That's when, according to our reports, a BDF truck going on a ration run happened on the scene. And though they had limited fire power, they came to the assistance of police. That caused the narcos to beat a hasty retreat
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Moments later, a white Toyota pickup truck was seen leaving the landing site carrying what they believed was the cargo from the plane."
They dumped the cargo at another location and - again with the help of the Mexican AWAC, police were able to find it:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We suspected more or less where they may have taken the cargo and again between myself and Mr Grinage who was on the ground, we communicated and coordinated that searches be conducted in two particular areas."
And that's when police took charge of the 25 bales of cocaine, 5 assault rifles, a turn prop plane and detained two of the alleged narcos from northern Belize, Armando Martinez and Moises Adan Perez.
Again, the total volume of drugs the men are charged for is 1682 pounds.
Notably, aviation experts point out that that "Piper Cheyenne 1" has a maximum payload of 1,550 pounds when it is full of fuel. In this case - they say - it would have had to bring much more fuel - so they tell us they don't know how it could have carried almost 1,700 pounds of cocaine.
