We also asked THOMPSON about the southern ports, and whether that has proven difficult to man, especially since they're bordered by the sea. He explained that because of their limited resources, they partner with entities such as the Coast Guard.
Lawrence Thompson, Deputy Comptroller, Enforcement & Compliance
"We have very porous borders and Belize is not exempt from any smuggling activities that are happening within the region. Unfortunately, ourselves, multiply with police, multiply with BDF and the Coast Guard we still, put all of us together, we will still not have the needed capacity, human resource equipment to police our borders 24/7. And so what we do is we look at areas we work along with, the entities that I mentioned just a while ago and we try to coordinate our efforts through force multiplying with the different agencies be it police, BDF or the coast guard to try as much as we can to patrol these hotspot areas. The south is no exception. We recognized that the south is a vast territory and its bordering with Guatemala and similar to the north, there are still the risk of smuggling and contraband coming in those areas. We have not neglected the south. We have in fact positioned our officers down there in strategic areas for them to be able to collect information and share those information with other agencies, so we can pool in all those resources and then apply enforcement efforts in those areas."
