A member of the Belize Defense Force is on suspension tonight after being caught by the Mobile Interdiction Team on an alleged human smuggling operation.
It was first brought to our 2 weeks ago when sources told us that a BDF soldier was caught in the Bullet Tree Area trying to transport a group of Ecuadorians who were attempting to enter Belize illegally. This afternoon, Police Commissioner Chester Williams said that investigators are still looking into this matter:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I think it is about two weeks thereabout that members of the Mobile Interdiction Team, working in the western border area, made that interception of a number of Ecuadorians. Along with them was a member of the Belize Defense Force. He was taken to custody and he was handed over to immigration. He was dealt with, and we are still looking at the human trafficking aspect of that investigation to see if we can be able to up the charge that he had received. I think right now we will have the immigration charge on him. We are looking at other charges that he may possibly face going down, later on in the future. And again, it is a sad situation to see that we do have members of our security forces involved in these activities. We understand - we should understand the black eye these incidents would cause upon our country, but yet we have our members who are involved. And I can tell you that we do have information that some police officers were involved as well. We continue to monitor those officers, and if it is that they were to be caught, then they certainly will be dealt with in accordance with the law. But we cannot turn a blind eye to the whole incident itself: human smuggling, human trafficking, child trafficking. We cannot turn a blind eye to those things."
