Since last week, we've been reporting on the car stolen in Mexico that customs impounded - almost 4 years after it entered the country and was fraudulently licensed and registered. We can confirm that it was fraudulent because the vehicle never went through customs, never had a customs entry.
So it was smuggled into the country and ended up being registered to the wife of a senior police officer at the time.
Customs first became aware of the vehicle in 2020 - reportedly after an audit of one of the municipal vehicle license databases.
But what Customs did after that, and what the commissioner did - is not so clear. We say that tonight because we have spoken on the phone with the former Comptroller of Customs. Jules Vasquez contrasts his remarks with that of the current commissioner of police to try to get to the bottom of a story with many twists and turns:
This vehicle, a Seat IBIZA - registered in the name of the wife of a former senior police officer - is currently impounded at Customs Headquarters, but according to the commissioner, that's not its first encounter with the Customs Department:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Mr. Gibson had notified me of, I think two suspected stolen vehicles that they believe the same family had owned then."
He means Mr Griffith - Colin Griffith - who is now retired. He confirmed that he did reach out to Williams in 2020 informing him that two suspect vehicles were registered in the name of a senior officer's wife - and as a courtesy - he would like the officer to bring the cars into customs.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"And I said to Mr. Gibson, if you have information that the vehicles are stolen, then by all means, please proceed and look into it. I do not want to appear as if I am taking side for nobody."
Griffith says Williams suggested that he get a search warrant to check out the vehicles. Customs decided against that because of how it would look for them to be searching a senior police officer's property. But, here is where the commissioner's and the Comptroller's accounts diverge.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Customs went, inspected the vehicles, said that the vehicles were not stolen and returned them to the family. And this vehicle was one of those vehicles. So I am wondering now why in 2019, they had said that the vehicle was not stolen and now in 2023, they are now saying that the vehicle is stolen."
But Griffith stresses that Customs never inspected the vehicles and never cleared them. He says he made multiple requests to Commissioner Williams and when nothing came out of that he even appealed to the then Minister Michael Peyrefitte. Shortly after was the onset of COVID - which brought everything to a halt. And so the stolen vehicles were never checked out by customs until two weeks ago when a customs officer - who had been involved with the original case - intercepted them at a regular contraband checkpoint near Sandhill. At the time it was driven by the now retired senior officer's son - also a police officer.
We did speak via phone with former police minister Mike Peyrefitte and he told us that indeed Griffith had reached out to him about the stolen vehicles - and asked him to lean on the Commissioner to have him prompt the officer to bring in the vehicles for inspection. Peyrefitte stressed that he told Griffith if he believes that he has evidence that persons have uncustomed vehicles, he doesn't need to call anyone, he should proceed as he would with anyone - because nobody is above the law. He says Griffith didn't get back to him and that's where the matter ended.
