And while the corruption of law enforcement by narcos may indeed extend to all the armed forces - for the police, the exposure of the past month has been completely on another level.
The Commander Operations Strike Team was the handpicked team of the man who was effectively third in charge of the department - Marco Vidal. This gave them autonomy from regular police units, and a nation-wide green light to run almost any kind of operation anywhere in the country.
And, now that four of the Strike Team's 7 members stand accused of assisting the narcos in their drug trafficking operations, it's a sovereign level fail - and one that is sure to draw scrutiny from Belize's international law enforcement partners. We asked the COMPOL abut the reputational cost of COST:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"It has to play in your mind sir that had the COST team - at what level of compromise did the COST team have and how much did that cost the department in terms of missed seizures if these persons were allegedly facilitating the movement of narco planes?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Like I said before they were not primarily involved much in these plan landing operations. They were more doing like strikes at people houses and gathering intelligence on persons who are involved in drugs or firearms smuggling and those sort of things. The movement of persons or teams that would respond to plane landings was always coordinated through JIOC. Now there are instances in deed where they would be a part of those operations and whether or not they were divulging information to assist the cartels, I cannot say at this time."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"But sir, I think we have a fundamental dispute and I refer again to that letter. I hope you saw it by now, the letter that refers to the issue of conflict."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The letter never did reach me and I have confirmed that it didn't reach me. It went to Mr. Edward Broaster who was commander of national operations and crime and I guess that was dealt with at his level."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"But sir, I am saying that that letter spoke about that there was a significant risk of blue events we spoke about, because they are both responding to the same thing which is drug planes. The fact is you do not know what all Mr. Vidal's COST team was up to, because they move in silence and sometimes violence. That is factual, sir. They had their own operations."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"You heard me say just now as to whether or not they were divulging information to the cartels, I can't say yes, I can't say no. I have no evidence of it. The possibility do exist."
