Police detained Hugo Cassanova, a notorious underworld figure in the north after a flurry of narco violence in Liberated between Saturday and Monday - which left one man dead and many terrorized.
He was detained by police yesterday afternoon - and by the evening police were shuttling him to Belmopan to be questioned by the Major Crimes Unit. Police told his attorney he is being questioned in connection with the murder of Kurtis Usher which happened on Saturday night in Libertad. Usher was killed when a gunman emerged from the bushes near his home and fired over 20 - 7.67 rounds from an assault rifle which killed Usher and grazed his 3 year old son.
His attorney told us last night that detaining Cassanova is a pattern for police going back some years where he is routinely held whenever "anything happens in Corozal because they believe he is a major player in the underworld."
Here's what the Commissioner had to say about that today and the rise of apparent narco violence in the north:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I don't need to speak of what it is alleged Hugo Cassanova is involved in, I think the entire Corozal or the entire northern district could tell you about that. And for the attorney to say that to every time something happens, Hugo is in custody, that again is not true. I can't recall the last time he was detained. Nonetheless, we are looking at a number of incidents in the northern districts where firearms have been used and persons have been killed and certainly there is an issue in respect to the drug war in the north. As a department we are working in tandem with the Belize Defense Force to see what we can do to stem these violence. And yes as a part of that effort, all those persons who we believed are involved in the drug trade in the northern districts are being pursued by the police with a view for them to be interviewed and see what role or what part they're playing in what is happening in the northern districts and so with that, it is nothing new, when something happens, it is the police's duty to move in an investigate and to try to restore some sense of normalcy. If you go to the village of Libertad, you'll see that the people there are very uneasy and they expect that the security forces are going to do something to restore their sense of normalcy. And we are going to respond to the needs of the people in doing what we should to restore that sense of safety to the people of Libertad and by extension the northern districts."
"I can tell you definitively that what is happening in Libertad has to do with local suspected drug dealers or drug traffickers and those are the persons we're focusing on but at the same time we're still looking at the possibility of outside elements playing a part in what is taking place."
"When we see shootings with.223 caliber rifles, it is a matter to be concerned about and what we have done, again, as I've said, is to put in place a composite patrol made out of police and BDF to patrol that area and at the same time going after those persons who we know or we have reason to believe may be behind these shootings. And I want to appeal to the people of Libertad and the northern districts that while we work diligently to restore their sense of safety, that they too have a role to play, we cannot achieve our desired outcome alone, there must be that buy in from the community as well as the information sharing because they are the ones that know the players within their communities and can share the information with the police confidentially."
Cassanova remains detained this evening.
