He's a successful, self-made tourism entrepreneur - and an outspoken advocate for local tour guides. But, Yohnny Rosado is also a man who like fancy rides - every few months, he can be seen pushing a clean new ride, usually an SUV. But the cave tubing impresario has run afoul of police with his latest ride, a Volkswagen Atlas - that the cops say is stolen - and that he says, he bought legally. Here's his story from a self-sponsored press conference today, and our tough questions for him:
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"The vehicle that I have is a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas. It's a very nice vehicle. I've been very proud of myself driving it and owning it. It is my property."
Or maybe it's someone else's. Police have intelligence that the vehicle is stolen from a car rental agency in the US.
They confiscated it on Tuesday:
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"Vehicle sneak up behind me, the vehicle looks like a criminal and chase me down like a criminal to take my property and they were taking away my vehicle with my kids inside. When my wife walk to open the door to take her belongings, her purse and one of the guys chased her down and say you cant take out anything out of the vehicle. All I knew and I smelled that they were cops. But the caliber or the type, because you have GI Joe, GI3, GSU, Special Branch - I don't know what they have, This time Mr. Cal say I don't have anything to answer you, we don't have to talk to you, give us the keys for the vehicle, this is not your property anymore and we are confiscating it, right away you know."
Rosado says he bought the luxury SUV crashed and for top dollar.
Jules Vasquez
"You don't know exactly where this vehicle came from, you bought it from a dealer. Did it received a proper customs entry? did you do a Carfax look up on it? did you do your due diligence on it? A lot of times people buy vehicles at a cant missed price - a steal deal and many times on those steal deal prices; the vehicles are stolen. What is the price you paid for this vehicle?"
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"He asked the tough questions when you are crooked and when you are dirty, But they can't hurt me with those questions. I have bought car. Your questions to me as a businessman that I am getting a steal seal and is too good to be true - that was not for me, because I bought a crashed vehicle for $65,000 as in I knew it was in the year 2021 for $65,000 for a crashed vehicle from Copart is a lot of money."
Jules Vasquez
"Due diligence means, you have a clean customs entry to the person who brought it in. Did you as the new owner checked the Carfax? The Carfax as you know is a database of a vehicle's history in the United States. Did you check the Carfax?"
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"But this vehicle that I got was already in Belize, was already with Belize City licensed plates, was already with Belize certificate. So, I just went to City Council and trade ownership and I got my vehicle. So I never have the time or doubt why should I Carfax, because I paid hardworking Belizean money for that nice vehicle and I bought it crashed. I never bought it as you see it now, crispy clean. I bought it with a big knock on the back and so, please, the US Embassy have very good sources to go check at the Raccoon Street police station to see if that vehicle is stolen in America, because I need my vehicle back. My country, my traffic department, my government have led me down by not protecting my rights, protecting my vehicle that I bought here and I got the transfer from the traffic department."
"Traffic department supposed to send someone to my house to find out what they did wrong, because they did wrong to me."
He's talking about this title - a legitimate certificate of ownership:
Jules Vasquez
"When you went to register the transfer, were you told, bwoy, wi gwine see somebody upstairs fa traffic or you went in the regular line?"
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"Regular line. Everything was smooth. Everything was so professional. I went to the traffic department, we lined up, it was no more than 10 minutes and I came out with my certificate beautifully done. I came out and went."
But, while Rosado may have gone through the right processes - in some corners of the used vehicle trade, corruption and fraud are common
Jules Vasquez
"There is a likelihood that the vehicle is actually stolen."
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"It could be 99.9%, I don't care."
Jules Vasquez
"Okay but if the vehicle is stolen, what then?"
Yohnny Rosado, Police Confiscated His SUV
"He has the answer, then you lawyer up, then I back for my cheese."
"My vehicle is not stolen. How a stolen will come in this era of time when America and Belize have everything is data. How a nice vehicle like that will be stolen and brought from the border in, Houston, America and Mexico. They came all the way through Mexico, they reach at the border of Chetumal, they crossed that border, they came in here, they came and licensed. It was licensed and insure you know when I bought it and it was crashed. Brought from the States crashed. They were about to fix it. So, don't tell me about it was a too good to be true deal. That don't fit the criteria I am talking about."
And while he was irate, today Rosado took it in stride as he left the press conference in his latest new ride, a crisp Range Rover.
Police have not issued a statement on Rosado's claims, but our sources say the cops have compelling evidence that the vehicle is stolen. If so, that would raise serious questions about how it got a legit certificate of registration from City Hall.
