Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the former operations commander, Marco Vidal was placed on suspension in mid December. This is after internal investigations into members of his strike team's involvement in landing a drug plane on the southern highway. According to public statements by the police minister and the commissioner, there had been administrative lapses in his oversight of that unit.
But, 6 months later, 7News has learned that the investigation went nowhere, and Vidal is now negotiating an early retirement package.
It would seem to be an easy out for a man who's team presided over a major state-level embarrassment for the country.
On Saturday at an event, Jules grilled the commissioner and the Minister about it:
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs and New Growth Industry
"There was nothing uncovered in that investigation, but I can confirm that we are in talks with his attorney at law to have him go into early retirement."
Jules Vasquez
"You all made public allegations against this man, the Commissioner and yourself, that there were administrative irregularities, but you had 90 days to produce something for the security services commission and you failed."
Hon. Kareem Musa
"I don't know that that is the case. What I am telling you is that there was no criminal wrong doing that was uncovered."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"As we had said before that the only thing we uncovered during the investigation was that there was some administrative failures on his part. The infraction that was uncovered would amount to a minor infraction, not a major. The investigation surrounding the landing of the plane yielded nothing against Mr. Vidal."
Reporter
"Can you go into detailing what that minor violation would have been administratively? because these officers under his lead ended up with a whole lot of ammunition that they shouldn't have had during that drug plane landing."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yes, but you see one of the issues we have had was that we believe that after any operations were to be conducted, because he has a right to be issued ammunitions to his people when they go on operations, but we believe that once an operation is over, that they should return those ammunitions in until they are ready to go out again. That was not done."
Reporter
"Sir, saying that they operated across the country with a lot of ammunition, doesn't that allude to the fact that they were operating with a lot of impunity?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Police officers on operations can carry ammunitions at large quantities, because you don't know what you are going to encounter."
Reporter
"They were encountering drug planes that they were helping to land."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Again, we have to be real. They were also involved in responding to plane landings. You can't send officers to respond to plane landings with 20 ammunitions, with 40 ammunitions - you don't know what they are going to encounter, so the issuance of those ammunitions could easily be justified. Yes, obviously it shows now in hindsight that perhaps they were using it for the wrong reasons, but the issuing officer at that time would not know, so we can't kill the man for that."
Jules Vasquez
"Out of this huge sovereign level embarrassment you all come up with nothing concrete, sir?"
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"I don't know if you were there Jules, but you saw the police officers who were arrested and charged. I don't see how you have arrived at the conclusion that we have not arrested and charge."
Jules Vasquez
"The officers were allowed to operate with impunity as members of COST by Mr. Vidal, empowered by Mr. Williams with your agreement, acquiesce."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"Absolutely not."
Jules Vasquez
"They operate with impunity. They moved around this country at will and at whim."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"I would not agree with you at all on that, Jules. I know you put that to the Commissioner of Police in the past and he has said he's not one that micro manages, but I don't think you expect me as Minister to be following around these officers to see what exactly they're doing in their course of duties, but there was never any report made."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"You cannot acquiesce on something you know nothing about. Acquiescence simply means that you reluctantly allow something to happen without a protest. You can't protest against something you don't know is happening. Myself as the commissioner of police, I don't micro manage my officers. I can tell you, as much as my friend might think the opposite, that I allow them to do their work. When things are not going as I think it should go, I am going to reel them in and if I have to whip them, I will whip them and put them back out to do their job."
Jules Vasquez
"By resolving the dispute in an early retirement package, because that's what you are negotiating for Mr. Vidal, he is in fact being rewarded with an early exit when the suggestion clearly was that his administrative failures may have led to this huge sovereign fail. Sir, this is fail on the part of your ministry and the department. You are giving the man a reward."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"It's not a reward, but I do believe that it is important for the morale of the department as well as the morale of the Belizean population, because while it is that they may feel that there was some involvement of ACP in this particular instance, you need concrete proof at the end of the day and so we have done our part and again it is a decision that we are making in terms of boosting the morale of not just the department, but of the population when it comes to this particular case."
Reporter
"How does that boost the morale of the Belizean people?"
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"Well, you have to look at that from the flipside. If we were to leave the ACP in his position in the department as such a high-ranking officer, what would the morale be in an instance like that? And those are the types of questions we need to ask ourselves and weigh in the balance and I believe it is better for the department in he was placed on early retirement."
Reporter
"And the Vidal report be made public?"
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Police
"I would have to check with the Commissioner of Police on that report and I personally don't see any issue with it being made public."
Commissioner Williams added that he received the confirmation letter from the governor general on Friday and Vidal's early retirement has been accepted.
