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And while that vehicle was on fire, another is hot! We're talking about the Seat Ibiza impounded two weeks ago by customs. It was stolen in the Yucatan area of Mexico in 2017 and emerged in Belize sometime after that.
Customs became aware that it was stolen when they did an audit of the Belmopan license and registration database and then found that it was registered in the name of the wife of a senior police officer. She had allegedly bought it from someone - not knowing it was stolen.
Customs tried to get it impounded - but the Comptroller at the time tried to do it discreetly - contacting the commissioner of police to have it quietly brought in to customs for examination.
When that ent nowhere, he also contacted the then police minister, Michael Peyrefitte. Yesterday Peyrefitte told us he had a very clear reason not to intervene:
Former Police Minister Peyrefitte said that the former comptroller of customs Colin Griffith did reach out to him in 2020 about this car - owned by the wife of then Assistant commissioner of Police Joseph Myvett:
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"I was thinking while I was having the conversation with the Comptroller that if I were to reach out to the Commissioner, or reach out to Mr Myvett and if indeed something untoward was happening then that would just give them a time to fix the problem or hide the vehicle or something like that, the element of surprise would be eliminated. I told the Comptroller at the time, I said Comptroller, if you believe that you can legally make a move under your powers, under the law that governs customs, you don't need my permission, you don't need my intervention, you don't need my help, you do what customs normally does. You go in, you take the vehicle, you charge who you have to charge and let the chips fall where they may. And then he said he would contemplate that but I never heard from him again. But I was certainly not going to intervene in a possible investigation, I did not believe that if I reached out to certain people, that that would have been the best thing."
Jules Vasquez:
"You were Minister of Police at the time, you would have wished that customs would go to this senior officer's house, he was one of the top ten officers in the department, to go to his house and conduct a search?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"If they believed that he was committing a crime, absolutely, nobody is above the law."
Jules Vasquez:
"From what Griffith told you, do you believe he had actionable information that was credible enough to justify a search?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"From what he told me, yes, from what he told me, he had good reason to action a search which is why I was puzzled as to why he even wasted time calling me. Proceed."
Griffith never did proceed - because he didn't want the scenery of searching a senior officers home- and then COVID came. So the vehicles remained in circulation - until a few weeks ago when it was stopped at a Customs checkpoint near Sandhill - with Myvett's son - now also a police officer behind the wheel:
Jules Vasquez:
"Were you surprised when you saw that three years later, these vehicles have resurfaced and are now being investigated by Customs?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"I was very surprised because usually Customs doesn't waste time, usually they move, and usually they don't care so I was surprised to see that this was still an issue."
The issue is that many times - not necessarily in this case - but in others- police end up with vehicles of dubious origins:
Jules Vasquez:
"Were you aware of this practice of taking vehicles that are linked to criminals and just keeping them privately or publicly for police use?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"No, I wasn't aware of the practice and quite frankly, I didn't try to meddle in the operation of the police department, you have a commissioner, you have so many ACPs, you leave them, I liked to be briefed on what's happening but I didn't interfere but there was no need for it to be kept secret either, the law is clear, if I arrest you and you are with a vehicle that I believe is being used to commit crime or is an illegal vehicle or whatever, then under the law, the police can use that vehicle until it is cleared up whether or not it should go back to you so it shouldn't have been a secret however it had to come into a pool for it to be documented and recorded as to who was then assigned the vehicle, who is was then allowed to use the vehicle-"
Jules Vasquez:
"Wouldn't there also need to be a court order? Because it's someone else's property."
Michael Peyrefitte, Former Minister of National Security
"Well yes, in the law there doesn't have to be a court order immediately, the last time I checked, you are allowed to do it but use it responsibly, but even so there has to be a record of it, it can't be that one team just secretly keeps these vehicles for themselves, this is not guerrilla warfare where you meet the enemy, you beat the enemy and you take their weapons, I mean the law contemplates you reinforcing the police department like that, but it has to be recorded, it has to be noted."
