And in other narco news - you saw the million dollar marijuana bust that the police department made on Wednesday, but over the Easter weekend, the Coast Guard found more drugs out at sea. The patrol team found 75 pounds of marijuana, worth $200,000, in the Turneffe area. Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Freddie Ku gave us more details via Zoom.
Lt. Freddie Ku, Chief of Staff
"This bust was done by one of our patrols out at Calabash Caye and this is the central area which is located within the Turneffe Atoll. So that patrol is located within the Turneffe Atoll at Calabash Caye so on April 6th at around 7:20am the patrol was operating out of the forward operating base at Calabash Caye and while at operation they discovered a package, a black checkered package, similar to a sack containing about 60 parcels of suspected cannabis. The parcel was partly submerged and covered by sargassum. Upon inspection they took out the bag from the area and some of it was already destroyed and discovered that it was marijuana. The total weight of the suspected cannabis was approximately 75 pounds or 32 kilograms with an estimated
value of approximately $200,000 Belize dollars. They were classified as found property since no individuals were present in the vicinity at the time of the discovery. The narcotics were secured at the forward operating base by the patrol and they were subsequently handed over to the anti-narcotics unit of the Belize police department. So it was handed over to them for furthering the investigation for processing. This discovery highlights the continued use of our maritime areas for elicit [activities] and the Turneffe Atoll remains an area of optimal interest due to its geographic characteristics which can be exploited by traffickers and criminal elements utilizing small vessels to transit through Belize's waters so the Belize Coast Guard continues to maintain a presence in this area to detect, deter, and disrupt these illegal activities." "These findings are always associated with larger shipments that are transiting through the Caribbean basin, you know where are within a major transshipment route so sometimes these fragments they fall off, they throw it off, and again because of our position and the winds and currants they usually wash off into the coast but again sometimes it happens months ago and it takes long to wash off but we cannot say for example where it's coming from, from a country."
