Bladen Eleven Returns to Court for Drug Plane Facilitation Case

Yesterday, the Bladen eleven, Sergeant George Ferguson, Elmer Nah, Corporal Delwin Casimiro, PC Nelson Middleton, Armando Martinez, Moises Perez, Juan Sanchez, Heinrich Redecop, Johan Wall, Fredy Gongora, and Adonis Campos returned to court. The group stands accused of assisting in the facilitation of a drug plane landing on the Southern Highway in Bladen Village in 2021, which led to the seizure of twenty-five bales of cocaine. The trial against the men is set to kick off in October but the work has already commenced. Attorney Dickie Bradley, who is representing the man alongside attorney Leeroy Banner, explained that the men were in court for the commencement of their Case Management Conference, before Senior Magistrate, Baja Shoman.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney: “They are charged with several counts involving, according to the allegation that they assisted in landing an airplane at a place which is not an approved airport/ air strip. Likewise, they are also accused of abetting bringing in cocaine in that plane into the country of Belize and they are accused of being involved in the matter of conspiring to import cocaine into the beautiful country of Belize. That matter was set for case management. There are just under 500 pages of statements and documents and case management was held in front of the senior magistrate Baha Shoman and that went on for almost the whole day and case management was concluded and now the court has set a date in October for trial. So the trial will start with that matter later this year.”

And the infamous Elmer Nah, who is accused of killing three people this year, his wife, Epifania Caliz, and brother-in-law, PC Manuel Caliz, were also in court for another matter. In 2021, two days after the drug plane landing, 139 rounds of .223 police-issued ammunition were found in Nah’s vehicle as he stopped at a checkpoint in Independence Village with the Caliz siblings. The group was jointly charged with two counts of kept unlicensed firearm and yesterday their trial concluded. Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley, who is representing Manuel Caliz, explained that his colleague attorney, Leeroy Banner, who is representing Epifania Caliz was able to poke several holes in the Crown’s case. Bradley also explained that Corporal Richard Arnold, the cop that testified in Nah’s defence at a police tribunal where he was found not guilty, took the stand in court and took responsibility for the ammunition. Bradley says Corporal Arnold told the court that he signed for the ammunition and placed it in a vehicle.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney: “Richard Arnold, a corporal of police, was brave enough, he had in fact been summoned to appear at the tribunal to try and discipline the officers them on some bogus charge and they all won their tribunal. But the point I’m making is that in the magistrate court of the senior magistrate of this country police officer Richard Arnold, who had given a statement from the time the thing happened, Leroy Banner was able to get out of him that yes from day one he had said and written in a report that the vest and the ammunition belonged to him he signed for those things they were assigned to him. The vehicle that these items were found in I mean the whole thing, the trial is not concluded so let me not say everything. My point is that Leroy Banner was able to bring evidence, strong irrefutable evidence that the bullet found in the vehicle being driven by Elmer Nah, who was and is a corporal of the Police Department belonged to COST, the post, the special operations team headed by the former deputy commissioner of the police. And he can verify that and he probably has verified that to those who have wrongfully brought charges against the Epifania and the others. So let me make this public, the trial in terms of the prosecution witnesses, because you know it’s not that they’re after they want to bring down Elmer Nah and the evidence from the defendants themselves that is concluded and all parties, prosecution and defense, are agreed with the date and the timeline. The senior magistrate has set the fourth day of July for the prosecutor to submit her closing arguments in writing.”

It is noteworthy that Elmer Nah was unrepresented in court.