Police Officers Questioned but Cleared in Southern Belize Drug Plane Case

Two cops were at the center of the recent drug plane landing in southern Belize.  Commissioner of Police Chester Williams confirmed that two police officers were questioned in connection with the landing in Graham Creek, Toledo District. According to the commissioner, however, no incriminating evidence has been found linking the officers to the operations.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Last week Thursday after midnight information was received of a plane that had landed in the extreme south of Belize that is in the Toledo district. A team of police and BDF were dispatched to the area and upon arrival the burnt remains of the plane was found and there was no cargo. The operation team remained in the area for a number of days conducting searches in the area with the hope of finding something and eventually they detained two persons who were found not too far from the vicinity of the plane landing an those two persons are currently in police custody being questioned with a view to ascertain if they have any information that could assist the police in determining who are those behind that plane landing. We had two police officers who were brought in for questioning and again that was because of certain information that we were getting and so it was just done with a view to see if in fact the information obtained was accurate and to see if there was any involvement of these officers but so far investigators have probed into this matter and we have not found anything to incriminate those two officers as it relates to the plane landing.”

Last week’s landing spurred an operation by the Joint Intelligence and Operations Centre (JIOC).  Security forces were deployed after JIOC detected an illicit aircraft entering Belize’s airspace. Burnt remains of the aircraft were later found on the outskirts of the village, but its suspected cargo was not located. The aircraft was the second suspected drug plane to have landed in the south for this year. The first reported incident was on March 2 when the burnt remains of an aircraft was found near our border with Guatemala in the south