Cocaine Found on Minister of Blue Economy’s Boat: Authorities Confirm Drug Drop Without Owner’s Consent

Over a pound of cocaine was discovered on a boat belonging to Minister of Blue Economy and Disaster Risk Management, Andre Perez. The seizure came after police acted on reports that known drug peddlers were frequenting a boat yard in the Back a Town area of San Pedro Town. A search was conducted, and 474 grams of suspected cocaine was found, concealed on the minister’s vessel. Following the discovery, authorities contacted Perez to confirm ownership of the boat. He clarified that the vessel had been docked at the yard for repairs and had not been used for over six months. Today, the Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that the investigation showed that the drugs were a part of a “wet drop” and were placed on the minister’s boat without his knowledge or consent. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “People in the Backa Town area of San Pedro area of San Pedro Town had reported to the police that they constantly saw the known drug peddlers from that area go into a boat yard that is in the Backa Town area of San Pedro Town. Based on the information that the police obtained police went and searched the boat yard and all the boats that are moored at that boat yard and inside one of the vessels police found a parcel containing 474 grams of suspected cocaine. We investigated to find out who the boat belongs to and investigations revealed that the boat is the property of Minister Andre Perez. Based on that Mr.Perez was interviewed and he gave a statement to the effect that the boat had been moored at the boat yard to undergo repairs for about six months he has not used the boat and that he pays a monthly fee of $250 for the boat to be kept at that boat yard. The statement of Mr.Perez was corroborated by the owners of the boat yard as well as the watchman and the boat captain and so based on that we could not have tied the drugs to Mr.Perez, there’s no information not even the slightest iota of evidence to suggest that the drugs belong to him and while the boat yard is managed by a group of people we could not tie them either because the boat yard is open, there are several ins and outs of the boat yard so anybody could walk into the boat yard and put what they want in any boat or on the property it self and so we could not have even hold those people accountable and this s not a boat that is closed up it’s an open boat like one of those Mexican lanchon is that how they call them ? Like one of those, so it is easy for anybody to place anything in the boat. We have a basic idea as to who the person is that may have placed it there. We are in search of that person but from all indications he went to Corozal. We have also notified the Corozal police to be on the lookout for him because we had gathered information the person may have found a good amount of parcels of cocaine and he might have taken some of them to Corozal for sale. So we’re hoping that we can find that person soon and we’ll be able to interview him further.”

Williams added that the minister was fully cooperative with the police.