For weeks, 7News has been systematically unpacking a mountain of leaked screenshots and a master tender document from the Ministry of Defence.
We have established that between 2021 and 2026, 1,950 sub-ten-thousand-dollar payouts were channeled to politically connected BDF ration suppliers. That's 96% of all payments made to those companies. The threshold-hugging payouts were structured specifically to avoid Treasury oversight-money laundering experts call it "invoice splitting."
But while these vendors were cashing in, were taxpayers getting actual value for their money?
Tonight, Jules Vasquez takes his most searching look yet at the BDF tender document to assess its value. Here is what he found:
Baby back ribs, for those who can afford it grilled like this, it's a Belizean favourite.
And just so for soldiers-but do they get to eat it?
This leaked tender document shows us that in 2023/2024, the BDF bought 1,320 pounds of it. For roughly one thousand soldiers that works out to just over a pound per year-that's about half a rack of ribs that each soldier could have gotten.
But the commander says that in his 32 years, he's never tasted this famous BDF Baby Back:
Brigadier General Anthony Velasquez, Commander, BDF
"I said I've never eaten baby back ribs, which is true. I've never had, but that doesn't mean that it's not purchased, right?"
In 2023/2024, it sure was purchased-plentifully! And the preferred supplier was the politically favoured Kukulcan Company Limited.
In that fiscal year, Kukulcan sold baby back ribs to the BDF for $15 per pound.
Fast-forward three years-years of heavy global inflation-and you can still walk into a store today and buy them for less at retail. Carnivore sells them for $14.85 per pound, and Running W Meats in Cayo charges just $14.07 per pound wholesale.
So why was the Ministry of Defence paying inflated, above-market prices for bulk orders back in 2023/2024? Simple: Kukulcan isn't just any vendor. It's a politically connected firm co-owned by former Defence Minister Marin's secretary, Susan Daniels, and other Corozal Southeast political insiders who are the registered owners. So, while taxpayers footed the bill, Kukulcan was making a killing. We note that all top three suppliers of luxury meats were politically connected-one of them co-owned by the Prime Minister's brother.
It was so egregious that when the current CEO arrived in March 2025, he said he stopped it:
Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of Defence and Border Security
"When I became CEO last year that these were things that were on the delivery schedule, which I immediately stopped. And you can, you can ask the BDF when I went there and I said, 'No, no, no,' I was like, 'Look, I disagree that these should be things that are regularly bought.' Because even if they're only used every few months, why would we buy, for example, baby back ribs and allow it to catch freezer burn before we use it? It doesn't make sense. We're not going to buy it every month, so we immediately stopped buying baby back ribs, the shrimp, the conch, the lobster-all of that we stopped buying when I became CEO."
And, he won't say it, but that decision alone suggests there was something egregious with this-buying surplus, luxury meats at inflated prices.
And there are so many more in that one fiscal year we have the tender for:
Paradise Shrimp, Regular Shrimp at an incredible $39 per pound-which is more than the current price of lobster, conch at $23 per pound-all purchased monthly and all from politically favoured suppliers.
Our BDF whistleblower who was formerly in charge of processing supplies for the BDF says he knows the pattern well:
Voice of BDF Whistleblower, Former Commanding Officer, Services and Support Battalion
"And as far as I'm concerned, pork chops is pork chops. But you would find out that you would might get pork chops from supplier A for $5 and then supplier B for $6 and supply or C for $10, and you're getting the same pork chops. Why is that so? I can't tell you. As far as I'm concerned, when we want a certain quantity of the item, it reduces it when the price have to be ranging in that manner. And then not only that to as well, you find out that you cannot spend the amount of money that you actually have, because in some cases, most of the, product, as in the pork chops would have been gotten from the guy who is selling it for $9 rather than the one who is selling it for $5."
"And why do you think that is?"
"That is, you and I know this, because someone is getting their kickbacks and, they want their portion of that money that is going to that supplier, there."
"From my observation, rarely you will find that, you will get the best item for the best price. In most cases, what suits the individual who is pilfering is what they would go with."
But, does it continue? CEO Usher has so far refused to share the current tender documents to show what a related company like Meat Masters is providing-we know that on their site we see a buffet of luxury meats-but because he won't or can't share the tender documents for this year, we can't say exactly what they were being paid for in these 54 disbursements between April and May of this year.
