And going back to a story we first told you about last night - Government has agreed to overhaul the gun licensing regime. This is after the revelations from 7News investigative reporting in June when we have demonstrated that the system is rife with corruption and issuance of fraudulent licenses to persons who paid for their license and did not qualify.
Jules Vasquez looks back on that reporting which started on June first:
Voice of: Gun License Holder
"Well I learned that you could do it the right way or you could do it the wrong way."
Jules Vasquez
"So what's the first step?"
Voice of: Gun License Holder
"Communication, text message to the higher up's, of course with the finances."
What kind of finances? Thousands of dollars paid in kickbacks.
Voice of" Gun License Holder
"So I have to handle da gun dealer, then that gun dealer have to handle somebody else.
"He first give you the price for the gun which is the accurate price that doesn't change and the he gives you the price for the connections that he has."
Jules Vasquez
"So how much is the total? breakdown: what's the price for the gun, what's the price for the connect?"
Voice of" Gun License Holder
"The gun will take you around almost $3,000 and then the connection is another $2,000 to $3,000 same way. Actually, I had 3 connections; was one thousand plus for each of them."
Jules Vasquez
"And then you have to pay one thousand each to 3 different people?"
Voice of: Gun License Holder
"That was what I was instructed to do."
Jules Vasquez
"$5,000 is not a little bit of money. Why did you feel you had to go that way, or it was wisest to that way?"
Voice of: Gun License Holder
"I was assured that its easier and that's what everybody who paid the money goes through."
Jules Vasquez
"You were told that once you pay that money, its assured, you'll get your licenced?"
Voice of: Gun License Holder
"I was definitely assured more than once."
The next day the Compol fired back almost in exasperation.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I am sick and tired of the nonsense - being the licensing authority for firearms is not beneficial to me. Its takes away from my work and so I've said to the minister its best you get a board to deal with it and there is a number of firearms reforms that we are dealing with currently and hopefully that's going to be a part of the reform. I don't want the headache to deal with it. Give it to somebody else to deal with it. I am done with that."
But he wasn't done yet - speaking from the US, street figure Marybeth Wade lit a fire under the police department
This is Marybeth Wade's Ruger 9 millimetre pistol - which she bought in June 2021 - right after she bought her gun license. She did this while having a police record - and being the partner of Winston Tanga James - a known underworld figure and police target.
Despite all that, she says the deal came to her easy:
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"The thing is - it's if you have the money - once you have the money - it doesn't matter if you have a police record, because I have a record. It costs me like $7,500. That consists of the gun licensed and of the gun. You get it within one day."
Jules Vasquez
"How did you get a gun licensed?"
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"I didn't had to go through the process. This person just contacted me and told me that gun licenses are giving out right now, you interested?"
This is the approval for the licensed signed by Commissioner of Police Chester Williams. It was signed on June 17th, the day before she paid for it in Belmopan.
Jules Vasquez
"You said that you hooked up some other friends as well."
Marybeth Wade, Former Gun License Holder
"The one who helped me get the gun licensed, said to try see how much people you could find. The more people you find, then you will get a cut too. So, like okay then, no problem."
"It's like a whole scheme and I am not asking them, I am telling them that I got 5 people to buy the gun licenses too."
And while the commissioner maintains he did not know Marybeth wade, someone in a prime position in the police department did, because they gave her or sold her a fraudulent vetting from special branch.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"So it turned out that she might have paid somebody to fabricate a vetting with her application form and that came to me and it was approved."
It would have to be someone close to the process, because how did her fraudulent vetting end up on the Commissioner's desk among the other presumably properly vetted files. That is a major unanswered question pointing to vast and intimate web of corruption that should have given the commissioner pause.
Jules Vasquez
"What is concerning is that a fraudulent vetting reached your desk. How does this end up on your desk?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"So whoever may have brought hers brought it in a mail and just delivered it to my office."
"I figured who the person was who brought Marybeth's one, and thereafter I said nothing that person brings I'm going to look at or I'm going to approve. Every system is not 100% proof. There is always going to be that little opening or little percentage of things that will slip you."
Our reports say it was more than a little - it was a whole lot. And now Cabinet hopes to address that by establishing Firearms and Ammunition Control Board which will receive, review, and process firearm applications. And the old analog system of gun licenses, which results in a handwritten license, will be replaced by a new digitized system, which will hold all the data on the issuance of licenses for firearms and ammunition.
However, no mention has been made of launching an independent audit into the current register of gun owners which, our reports suggest, has multiple instances of fraudulent gun licenses which were paid for in corrupt deals.
We'll keep following the progress of the changes.
